1C Roundup - nine new games previewed

Russian publisher 1C recently announced plans to launch an attack on the West with a massive collection of new titles. Partnering with Atari, 1C hopes to serve the West's insatiable appetite for games with a wide selection of titles ranging from fresh first-person shooters to big rig truck simulators and medieval warfare titles. Read on for our impressions on their nine new titles and follow the links for new screens and trailers.

Cryostasis: This first-person shooter places you aboard an ice-breaker ship under siege by mutant monsters and deadly weather. Health will be governed by your body's temperature. Finding sources of heat is paramount to surviving the ship's subzero climate. Most interesting is your main character's Mental Echo powers which allow you to relive the last ten minutes of any dead thing's life that you encounter.

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It sounds like a mixture between Lost Planet and the TV show Quantum Leap. In one area we were shown how you had to relive the life of a frozen sailor to use a crane to open a door that would allow you to access a new area in your own time. David Tractenberg of 1C hinted at a scenario where you'd use the Mind Echo on a slab of meat, suggesting that you'd play the last ten minute's of a cow's life. But how your character came across this psychic power and the fate of the bovine remains a mystery.

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You Are Empty: Mutant nurses with rotting flesh stumble across the bloody halls of a dirty asylum to greet you at the beginning of You Are Empty, a first-person shooter set in the 1950s. The game features a distinct style in its cut scenes, which look like stylized silent black and white news reels. But instead of chronicling your character's progress through the main storyline, the cut scenes will tell the story of the game's main villain instead. Will You Are Empty's "surprise" ending reveal that you yourself are the main villain? We'll have to wait and see.

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Dawn of Magic: Build your own magical prodigy in this overhead dungeon crawler. The game controls much like Diablo as you click your way towards experience and loot. Our brief time with the game introduced us to a Hogwarts-like school of magic where we learned the basics of casting spells. Video of later areas in the game showcased a truly horrific sight: a gigantic blue-horned baby with a belly lined with a nasty mouth, lined with razor sharp teeth. Seeing the carnivorous child toss a character directly into its stomach made our skin crawl.

Clickherefor the latest screens.
Clickhereto watch the trailer.