Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD – The best HD remaster yet, on PSN December 21st/27th

[Shin-Ra]

SCEE/PAL: December 21st (£9.99/€12.99/AUS$18.25/NZ$24.90) SCEA/NA: December 27th (US$14.99)

In the dusty, undeveloped wastelands of Western Mudos, cantankerous townsfolk find their settlements besieged by belligerent outlaws. Along comes Stranger, a tall, dark and enigmatic bounty hunter with a critter-firing crossbow. First released in 2005, Stranger’s Wrath has been passionately upgraded for this HD release.

Stranger is keeping a secret and needs expensive surgery to survive. In his quest to earn enough Moolah, Stranger reluctantly accepts the ultimate bounty from the owner of the Mongo River before coming to learn the truth about the valley’s oddball inhabitants, and suddenly his adventure takes a very different turn.

"Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath" HD Intro - YouTube

Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD - Lefty Lugnutz Gameplay - YouTube

Oddworld Stranger's Wrath HD PS3 Enhancements

Characters

• All 84 character models have been updated with increased polygon counts and higher resolution textures.
  • This includes all three variations of Live Ammo: Those in the environment, those on the Crossbow and those in the General Store.
  • Stranger: 3k up to 20k polys.
  • NPC's: 1k up to 3-4k polys.
  • Live Ammo: 500 up to 3k polys.
• Wolvark Sloghandlers now release Slogs instead of Slegs.
• Professor Dimble now has glasses and an academic tome.
• Jo’ Mamma has a deeper voice.

Environments

• All environments have been given higher resolution textures.
• Most vegetation has been updated with increased polygon counts and/or higher resolution textures.
• A lot of the environment is now reflected in water where it didn’t before.
• Many, many pipes and barrels rounded.
• Added Blisterz Booty’s broken crud gun to the floor by his bola’d body, as it is in the opening CG Cinematic.
• Sekto’s Office has been changed to more closely resemble than seen in the CG Cinematic.

Audio

• All game audio (voice, sound effects and music) have been upgraded to 16-bit 44KHz from 8-bit 11KHz or less!
• Support for 5.1, Dolby Digital and DTS.
• New female voices have been recorded for two characters.

Display

• Everything now runs at 720p, 60 FPS, widescreen.
• All UI menus have been updated with a new design based on original unused concepts.
• Textures added to stamina and bounty bars.
• Save game GUIs replaced with standard PlayStation 3 interface.
• New posters now occupy the inventory menu when no bounty is accepted.
• MLAA – Full screen PS3 only anti-aliasing.

Difficulty

• All armour upgrades now actually increase Stranger’s health.
• Added difficulty levels to the game: Easy, Medium and Hard.
• In Easy Mode:
  • Stranger has twice the health.
  • Enemies have half the health and stamina.
  • Enemies’ stamina recovers half as fast.
• In Normal Mode:
  • Stranger’s health and armour for later in the game have been re-balanced.
• In Hard Mode:
  • Stranger has a third less health.
  • Enemies stamina recovers a third quicker.

Unlockables

• 37 trophies: 23 bronze, 8 silver, 5 gold, 1 platinum.
  • 18 of these are brand new, not in the PC port.
• Unlockable concept art (37) and movie extras (5) for completing each region of the game.

And some hidden easter eggs...

(top: Xbox original)


(bottom: PS3 HD remaster)




































note: the trailer below is missing some of the enhancements from the finished remaster

Oddworld Stranger's Wrath HD - Official PS3 Trailer - YouTube

TROPHY LIST

1. Hidden – Hidden
2. Bag Blizterz Booty – Bounty Blizterz Booty
3. Starting The Journey – Complete the tutorial
4. Wash My Hands Of This Mess – Bounty Filthy Hands Floyd
5. Clean The Water – Bounty Looten Duke
6. Spank That Booty! – Bounty Boilz Booty
7. Dumb It Down – Rescue Eugene Ius
8. Don't Be Talkin' 'bout Ma Mama – Bounty Jo' Mamma
9. Go Organic – Bounty Meagly McGraw
10. Junkyard Challenge – Bounty Packrat Palooka
11. Mine Your Business! – Bounty X'plosives McGee
12. The Sleg Avenger! – Bounty Lefty Lugnutz
13. You Scratch My Back – Bounty Elboze Freely
14. Too Much Fuzzle Pie – Bounty Fatty McBoomBoom
15. You Know Too Much – Take out D. Caste Raider
16. Giving A Leg Up – Get to Last Legs
17. Dam Sekto! – Enter the Lower Dam
18. Elevate Yourself – Take out a Gloktigi
19. Regain That Spring In Your Step – Reach the Upper Dam
20. Now There's Two? – Take out Sekto's personal bodyguards
21. Smack Down Sekto! – Defeat Sekto
22. Hidden – Hidden
23. Hidden – Hidden
24. Hidden – Hidden
25. Back In The Village – Defeat the Wolvark attackers in the Native Village
26. Get 'em – Bounty 250 Outlaws
27. Get 'em Goooooood! – Bounty 250 Outlaws alive
28. Hidden – Hidden
29. Mo Moolah – Have 20,000 Moolah when you take the barge to Doc's Mongo Retreat
30. Go With The Flo ... – Find a hidden bottle of medicine
31. Crystal Mess – Collect 15 orange crystals
32. Finders, Filchers – Collect 25 Moolah chests
33. Free The Meat – Destroy the 10 hidden barrels
34. Slakker Clakker – Finish the game on Easy
35. Stranger Danger – Finish the game on Normal
36. Sekto Suicide – Finish the game on Hard
37. Farmer Harmer – Kill Farmer Beeks

[Shin-Ra]

Here's Jeff Gerstmann's Gamespot review from 2005.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A48YDGQO7Fw

Just as well they're remastering that audio, eh!

Any questions about gameplay mechanics.. fire away. I'll try and remember.

Extra specs:

• Platinum and full range of trophies
• Aiming for 60fps
• Morphological anti-aliasing

If only there was a Blu-ray release too.

[Shin-Ra]

I've been listening to these tracks for the last five years.

Original music by Oddworld composer Michael Bross:

Attract Mode
We had talked about doing more of a heavy electronica-type score for the game, at one point. Though it didn't end up that way, I created a few tracks that went that direction. This composition never made it into the gameplay itself, but was used instead for at least one of our game trailers and was used for an "attract" mode in the game.

[Show spoiler]Race Against Time
When I wrote this composition, I knew I wanted to use it for later in the game but I didn't know exactly where. When the designers decided to incorporate a "timed run" towards the end of the game, it seemed to be the perfect fit.

Fighting Outlaws
This is one of my favorite tracks I created for the game. I wanted that "spaghetti western" sound to be present, but since I'm never interested in a narrow emulation of a certain musical style, I melded in some Middle Eastern percussion and electronic elements to round out this composition.

Fight for the Native Village
I performed a number of tracks of live percussion on this one. Jamie McMenamy (our other sound designer) is a fine guitarist and he laid down some subtle, chordal guitar work on the end of this piece.

In the Dam
This track is a bit of a musical precursor to the final battle theme at the end of the game. This piece begins the last level of the game. It's more of an orchestral work but has a lot of "sound design" and textural elements weaved through it.

In the Dark Sewers of Buzzarton
This composition went through a major transformation. It was a blend of two older compositions. I really twisted the percussion track around on this one in hopes of creating an interesting, moody sound. That twangy, western guitar sound can still be heard but it's not too conventional.

Quest Up Mongo River
Though this piece doesn't have an upbeat tempo, I wanted to create a feeling of urgency here. I like how the electronic elements blend with the ethnic vocals.

A Remote Town
The Clakker towns seemed like lonely, desolate places to me...not necessarily the towns themselves because there was always Clakker activity in them, but more because the towns were islands in the middle of nowhere. I wanted to convey that sense of loneliness and space with this track.

Stealth
This piece lends well to a sense of tension which is perfect for when you can sneak around in the game. I think I used chopsticks on drum rims to help create the "ticking" drum track.

The Native Villages
Though the natives are humorous characters in how they look and what they say, they live amidst a very depressing backdrop and have been downtrodden by their situation. The flute melody captures their inner sadness.

All images and music is copyrighted (circle (R) and circle (P) by Oddworld Inhabitants. All Rights Reserved.

Screenshots of the Xbox original, also from Oddworld.com, minus a few spoilerish ones.

[Show spoiler]

[Toxa]

I would prefer a 2D style game like the first one

[Idealsupra]

At first I was like when I saw Oddworld was coming back.

Then I was like when I saw it was a PSN released game.

Then I was like when I found out it still would have a Platinum trophy.

[Nielsb90]

I am stoked for this! Cool news!

[Shin-Ra]

Oddworld Inhabitants just relaunched their website:

www.oddworld.com

Just Add Water's had a few development blogs describing some of the process of updating Stranger's Wrath:

How does one make this work?!

Stranger PS3 Update




Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath – Dev Diary Pt 2

[Blu Ian]

holy shot

[Goodintentions]

Originally Posted by Strafer

holy shot

This game was awesome back when on xbox and i look forward to playing it again...

[Shin-Ra]

Little to no scratchy audio in the remastered game:

Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath – Dev Diary 3 – Audio

Bross' music gives me chills.

[Shin-Ra]

Sounds like it's not going to release by Easter.

GameCityNights: JAW and Lorne Lanning

GameCityNights are monthly explorations of gaming culture held in Nottingham, UK, featuring big name developers and other gaming celebrities. Episode 4 of their current series, which takes place on April 28th, 2011, will feature Stewart Gilray, managing director of Just Water, discussing the perils of working on cult titles, followed by Lorne Lanning addressing the audience live through the magic of Skype.

The evening will include footage of the freshly remastered Stranger’s Wrath put together by JAW, probably the first the public will see of the new high-resolution environments and characters in action.

Keep an eye on the GameCityNights website, where you’ll be able to purchase tickets in due course!

The male Grubb's girth has increased somewhat!

Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath For PSN: Taking HD Remakes To The Next Level
[Posted on 22 December by Stewart Gilray – CEO, Just Add Water]

Long time no see! Since Gravity Crash Portable was launched we’ve kept our heads down while working on a bunch of stuff. During the summer we started working exclusively on Oddworld projects, and I’m here today to talk about the first title we announced: Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath.

You may have heard of this game before – it was originally released in March 2005, but we’re doing an HD remake for PSN. Recently there have been a whole raft of HD remakes coming to the PS3, and to be able to work on this project and take the definition of “HD Remake” to the next level has been a dream come true.

Not only are we revamping various aspects of the game such as texture resolution, user interface and game audio, but we’re also overhauling the character models. You’ll no doubt have seen the visual update we’ve done to the main character, Stranger. We’re updating every character in the game in similar style, and today I’d like to introduce you to a couple more.



First up we have the Clakkerz, the general population from the towns at the start of the game all the way to New Yolk City. The guy pictured above is the Store Keeper, he runs the General Store where you get to buy ammo and upgrades, and is always wise cracking, ahem, with you. A lot of my passion for this game is the story and the script, there is so much humour in there that you can’t help but laugh out loud at times!

Next we have the Grubb Natives. These guys are afraid of their own shadows and mistrust anyone, especially a tall Stranger that comes into their settlement, but is there a reason for that? Their story unfolds farther in the game.



In Stranger’s Wrath you play a bounty hunter, tracking down various villains and capturing them. To do this, you don’t use a gun but LIVE ammunition. And by “live” we really mean that – your ammo are little critters with special abilities, and at times the damned things even back chat you. So the critters sit on your crossbow and talk to you, then when the time’s right, you press the trigger and send them on their way.

This little guy is my favourite, the Chippunk, cause he’s a wise-cracking chipmunk-like guy!



Over the coming weeks and months, we will be back to talk to you more about the PS3 version of Stranger’s Wrath, including other updates and additions to the game we are making.

Thanks, and we hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

[Shin-Ra]

Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee and Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath coming to PS Vita this holiday season, with cross platform cloud saves #E3

https://twitter.com/#!/jawltd

Munch's Oddysee HD and a 3D remake (same 2D gameplay) of Abe's Oddysee were announced a while back for PS3.

[AranhaHunter]

I wonder how it'll be released on Vita. Download only or card, furthermore I hope they either "Portal 2" it if you buy the PS3 version or offer a bundle at a discounted price. I remember playing these games a long time ago on the OG XBox and wouldn't mind rebuying them whenever the price is right.

[Shin-Ra]

Probably PSN only like the PS3 version. I'd pay the extra for second and third physical copies!

Here's a fresh review of the Xbox original.

YouTube - ‪Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath | Under The Rader | Gamer Reaction‬‏

Breakdown HD please Namco! Two criminally underrated, very unique genre-mix games.

[Shin-Ra]

Just Add Water released a bunch of pre-graphical makeover HD shots of Stranger and Munch, kinda pointless unless you want a reminder of how dated they look now.

But, this looks like a further upgraded version of Steef's new in-game model.

[Show spoiler]

The resolution wasn't great on the older comparison shot but there appears to be improved texture to his face, hair, green hat band (and possibly hat), arms, gloves, pouches and bootstraps. The chunkier studs next to the bootstrap buckles look great, especially with the extra shine. I think his eyes and nails just look different because of the pose and changed light source. His leathery poncho shine's been toned right down, which looks more like the original concept render/paintover:

[Show spoiler]

I'm loving the faithful work JAW's done.

[Shin-Ra]

You had me at Hello – Just Add Water talks all things Odd

It was during the development of the PC version of 2005’s quirky Xbox FPS Stranger’s Wrath that Gilray approached first Lanning and then Sony for permission to create an updated, HD version of the game for PS3. With the nod from Lanning and stage one approval granted by Sony, Gilray and his team went about updating the art assets, which included a makeover for the lead protagonist; upping his polygon count from 3,000 to 20,000.

Gilray acknowledged that this is far less than an entity such as Nathan Drake of Uncharted boasts – Drake weighs in at around 80,000 polygons – but it’s a number which Gilray feels is still “fairly substantial” and that has allowed the team to achieve a zero frames per second difference between the old assets and the shiny new updated ones.

Assuming all goes well over the next few weeks, it shouldn’t be too long before we see the fruits of Just Add Water’s labour.

“We’re at the point now where we’re around six to eight weeks from starting QA on Stranger’s Wrath,” Gilray told us. “So we should be looking at a late summer release.”

Gimme!

“At the same time, we’ve also announced that we’re doing Munch’s Oddysee HD for PS3 and both Munch’s Oddyssee and Stranger’s Wrath for Vita, too,” Gilray informed us.

”Sony spoke to us earlier this year about bringing those games to Vita so we’re working like lunatics to get those ready for Vita’s launch, whenever that may be! Oh, and we’re also working on rebooting the Abe games!

“On top of this we’ve spoken to Lorne Lanning and Sherry McKenna [Oddworld Inhabitants co-founders] about finishing the Oddworld quintology. It’s worth just clarifying what that actually entails because some people think it’s just adding one more game to the four already released to make five. The quitology is actually five ‘Oddysee’ games, and so far we’ve only had two of those: Abe’s and Munch’s Oddysee. The third game is Squeek’s Oddysee, Lorne and I have had brief chats about that already but I can’t say exactly how far away that is.”

Really impressive model updates, trouble is it's the mechanics and level design that needed updating in Munch's Oddysee and I'm not so sure JAW's going to dig into that.

It’s clear that the striking visuals of both Abe and Oddworld resonate with gamers and that’s something that, if it gets its way, Just Add Water hopes to indulge, with a special treat for fans.

“Going forward, all Oddworld games will be digital releases only,” Gilray explained. “There won’t be any boxed releases but, having said that, we know that a lot of fans would like something physical to go alongside their game.

“So, what we’re thinking about – and it is just at the idea stage because we’d have to speak to Sony about it – but what we’d like to do is emulate what some bands in the music industry have done recently. Bands like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have released digital versions of their albums but alongside that they’ve also released deluxe box versions. We’d like to do something similar. Release special edition boxed versions of the games but with a download code, so there’s no actual physical media for the game but, ideally, you’d get a PS3-sized box with a really nice manual, art cards etc.

“This really depends on whether we can get permission to this, though. The ultimate plan is to provide those fans that want packaging, with packaging, but it’s up to the platform holders and whether they’ll allow us to do it.”

It's the Blu-ray/Game Card I want most from a physical release, not the packaging.

[Shin-Ra]

I found more Stranger's Wrath update comparison shots on Oddworld's facebook.

[Shin-Ra]

New Stranger's Wrath HD logo:



There was a media hands-on recently and JAW's said they're preparing screenshots so hopefully we'll see how it's all coming together in the next few weeks.

[SoCalTiger]

No idea what this game is about but the graphics look gorgeous =P

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by SoCalTiger

No idea what this game is about but the graphics look gorgeous =P

I think the HD makeover is really impressive, but I can't help but feel that the art style is a little ... harsher? ... I don't know if that's the word I'm trying to find. The older assets have a softer, more approachable look to them that I find is appealing in its own way that just seems absent from the newer versions.