Developer Ivy Road and publisher Annapurna Interactive revealed the developers debut title, Wanderstop, during Summer Game Fest 2024. Ivy Road, an outstanding development team full of talent, lead by the creator of The Stanley Parable Davey Wreden, is making a

In Wanderstop players will take on the persona of Alta, a fallen fighter, tasked with managing?? a tea shop in a magical forest. Players will tend to customers passing through the forest, making their tea and cleaning up and decorating the shop. But there's a catch: Alta doesn't want to be at the tea shop.

If you've played The Stanley Parable, you'll know that Alta's?? wandering mind and thoughts have her questioning why the world's greatest championship warrior is toiling away at a Tea Shop in the middle of the forest. In the trailer, Alta sits on a bench, trying to convince herself sh??e's happy running the Tea Shop before having a bit of a panic attack.

Quickly what looked like a happy cozy Tea Shop management title changed into something more. I'm not sure wh??at exactly players will have to contend with as playing Alta, but I'm v?ery ready to find out.

Wanderstop is coming soon ??to PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam.

[This news is developing and will be updated as more information becomes available.]

The post Wanderstop from the creator of The Stanley Parable has me wondering what’s really going on appeared first on Destructoid.

Down, but not out

There's an art to a good video game demo. How do you make a slice of a game available to prospective buyers that's both representative of the final product and small enough that they still want to buy it? A video game is interactive, so a perfect "trailer" for a game should also be interactive, but how do you ensure that you're not showing your whole hand? A movie trailer can include a curated slice of narrative, but a demo must include a curated slice of gameplay, just enough to hook the player without handing them a full game. It's a delicate?? balancing act.

These days, it feels like the "demo" is in an interesting place. Very few AAA titles put in the work to offer up an interesting demo of any kind. In the rare instances that they're available, the playable advertisements for modern AAA titles feel less impactful than they once did. Some stewards of the demo have preserved the art form for us all, though, and in? some quiet corners of the world, demos are better than ever.

The Good

My favorite kinds of demos are the ones that feel like their own little games. Take, for example, the phenomenal UNBEATABLE [white label]. Despite being, ostensibly, a free sampling of gameplay and narrative to accompany the upcoming rhythm game UNBEATABLE, this "demo" features a full-fledged side-story and tons of music. It's a discreet enough offering that it feels like its own rhythm game entirely. Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars is a game tha??t I don't really care for, but it's got an impressive demo that manages to show off the combat system and some of the world without containing a single piece of gameplay or story from the full title, acting as something of a prequel focused on a few side characters. These "side-game" demos are a relatively new concept, and a signal that care still goes into so?me demos, even now.

[caption id="attachment_357303" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Another great example of this format is The Stanley Parable Demo, which is basically a companion piece to the 2013 game. It's got the sense of humor that you'd expect out of The Stanley Parable, and it's perfectly representative of the game without giving away any of its myriad surprises. In fact, The Stanley Parable Demo is probably a more incisive and meaningful breakdown of the video game demo than anything I can offer here. I was pretty disappointed when The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe, one of my favorite games of 2022, contained no mention of the ????demo at all - a symptom of increasingly demo-light times, I suppose.

[caption id="attachment_357328" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

The more obvious "good" type of demo is one that offers up a tiny slice of the main game that demonstrates its strengths to the player. These have become increasingly less common, but a good example is something like the recent Forspoken demo. While I don't enjoy playing that demo at all, it feels like I know what to expect after playing it (despite the developers' protestations). The demo for Backpack Hero, an under-appreciated indie roguelike, is another recent demo that I love. It tells you exactly whether or not you'll enjoy the full title without giving a??way the whole experience. These are the types of tried-and-true demos that have existed for decades, and ??they're as rewarding now as ever.

The Bad

You know what's not fun to see when you're trying to decide whether or not to buy a game? A running clock. Resident Evil Village's time-gated demo was a disappointing sign of the times for me. The demo only contained a tiny portion of the full game, but you could only play the thing for about an hour before you were locked out. I'm speaking in the past tense because, after Village's release, the demo was delisted entirely. The time-gated de?mo was only available for a limited time.

[caption id="attachment_357308" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Capcom[/caption]

Here's the thing that bugs me about this - when I was younger, I had a very limited amount of money to spend on video games. During that time, I would save my money while playing through demos. This is how I discovered some of my favorite games. Months before I bought Cave Story from the DSiWare shop, I played ?about ten h??????????????????????????ours of its fifteen minute demo on WiiWare. In fact, WiiWare and Steam demos were vital in fostering my love of gaming (I came up in the age of the digital storefront, right at the tail-end of the demo craze).

I fell in love with those games precisely because I could spend so much time with them before I bought them. Demos can act as a way to advertise to an audience with a limited budget, and it seems supremely stupid to lock that audience out before they've had time to make a financial decision. Resident Evil Village is really good, and its demo could be?? good, too, but e?ven when it was available, it missed the mark by a wide margin.

Capcom pulled the exact same trick again with the Resident Evil Village Gold Edition demo. This is a scummy, irri??tating practice designed not to entice players, but to prey on their FOMO. Compared to t??he demo discs and simple one-time downloads of old, it comes off as downright cynical. And it gets worse.

The Ugly

I need to talk for a second about my least favorite kind of demo: the PlayStation Plus Premium game trial. After Sony's recent PlayStation Plus overhaul, game trials were added to the highest tier. If you pay about 18 dollars a month, in addition to pother PS Plus perks, you can play select titles for about two hours for free. I've already talked about why time-gated demos are frustrating to me, but charging for time-gated demos feels almost insulting. That Sony seemingly encourages developers to use this system in place of a trad??itional demo is even worse.

[caption id="attachment_357314" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

I recognize that this system isn't entirely dissimilar to the way demo distribution worked in the past. Demo discs, which many would re??gard with nostalgic fondness, were frequently packaged as "bonuses" in magazines and cereal boxes and the like. But? digital distribution back then simply didn't exist the way it does now, and charging for demos is bizarrely archaic (especially given that you can't keep said demos forever, or even for the duration of your subscription).

I don't mean to be overly-pessimistic here. Like I said, the best demos of today are better than anything that came before them. It's just frustrating to watch the highs get higher only for the lows to get so much lower. Oh, well. At least One Piece Odyssey is getting a demo.

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How do you improve on perfection?

Where do I even begin with this? You can't review The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe like a normal game �no, not even close. Sure, you can call it an open-ended walking sim with multiple endings, but while that may be true, it doesn't even come close to doing the experience of playing it justice. The Stanley Parable is what every other video game that?? claims to be art should aspire to, because it is able to so effectively convey its thesis while at the same time ent??ertaining you to all hell.

Nine years ago, we reviewed The Stanley Parable when it originally came out, and James Stephanie Sterling's sentiment was that to give anything away was to ruin the game's whole appeal, and the same goes for The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe. So much of what makes this game special is the surprise and the discovery of it all, so in order to maintain the spirit of The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe, all I can tell you is that th??is is a must-play. Not just as one of the best games of the year, mind you, but as one of the best games period.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe (PC [Reviewed], Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: Crows Crows Crows
Publisher: Crows Crows Crows
Released: April 27, 2022
MSRP: $24.99

I've written pages and pages of notes trying to piece this review together, trying my best to convey why I think this game truly is genius (a word I use sparingly in any part of my life, let alone when discussing video games). I like to think I'm a tough critic, especially when it comes to narrative games, but The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe has a way of immediately disarming me ever??y time I boot?? it up.

For all of its commentary and cynicism, at its heart, it has so much charm, and so much love for the medium it's so dedicated to deconstructing. With any other game, I have to stop and pick apart every little mechanic or how it feels to play or how the UI looks, but at risk of sounding hyperbolic, speaking about The Stanley Parable in that way would feel sacrilegious.

When you're in the business of thinking about thinking about and writing about thinking about video games, there's nothing more refreshing than a game that just takes you on a journey, and The Stanley Parable does just that. There's never a moment where you're hoping the game is going to present you with something engaging �it just does it, it does so masterfully, and it escalates to places you weren't expecting, but you're so glad it did. I will say that if this kind of game isn't your thing, you're not going to enjoy it because the Ultra Deluxe content leans even harder int??o absurdism. But if you're willing to let go?? of any preconceived notions of what a game is supposed to be and roll with it, you're going to have an amazing time.

The new content

I hate talking about it in these terms, but fine: if you're worried about getting your money's worth, don't worry, you're more than doubling the original game's run time. If you're talking about quality, well, the new deluxe content kind of just makes me want to throw my hands up and be like, "I don't know what you want me to say." It does exactly what it ne??eds to do. It's hilarious and self-aware and dripping with irony, all while still having whip-smart writing that makes me happy to sit back and soak it all in for a while because it's just that good.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is The Stanley Parable for a new era, for 2022. If the original was a commentary on game design and the way players think about autonomy and choice in video games, The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe's extra content is a commentary on game reviews, online commen??tary, sequels, and hype in the industry �and it ??does so with the same level of wit and sarcasm that you'd expect.

A game for the modern era

The whole experience reminded me a lot of Bo Burnham's Inside. Love it or hate it, that special captured exactly what it felt like to exist in the first year of the pandemic specifically, in a way that I think will act as a sort of time capsule for future generations. The new content of The Stanley Parable's deluxe edition has this same type of specificity �if you want to know what it feels like to be a game developer, journalist, or really anyone who works in games in 2022, The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe has you covered.

Another review-y topic that I actually did want to touch on is the game's accessibility �something the devs put a lot of thought into this time around. There are all kinds of new settings t??o accommodate all kinds of players, like more options for subtitles and improved in-game textures that feature text, new control schemes, such as one that allows players to go through the game playing entirely with one hand, and even content warnings for some of the game's more intense moments. You can tell that Crows Crows Crows put a lot of effort into making sure all players can enjoy the experience,? and I have to give them kudos for that.

What are you still doing here? Just go and play it!

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe might joke about overly aggrandizing reviews, but it's one of the few games that's actually deserving of one. For all its smugness, I'd love to sit here and tell you that The Stanley Parable is pretentious and full of shit, but it earns? every right to its pretension. And I for one and so glad I'm here to see it. There's a reason it's considered one of the best games of al??l time.

The post Review: The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe appeared first on Destructoid.

"The most spoiler-free and coordinated launch possible"

It's best to go into the Stanley Parable completely blind, but this Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe website helps ??clue you into the vibe the game is going for, without spoiling anything??.

That's sort of the intent of the entire page, actually. In a very cheeky way, studio Crows Crows Crows provides the gist of what you expect, while providing soft "guidelines" of what constitutes a spoiler. As the site puts it, in the case of an early launch: "we expect you all to abide by the honor code and wait patiently until all other platforms and store fronts have caught up. This way, we can all hit 'Play' at the same time. Here at the The 'The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe Release Preparedness' Initiative we play fair."

Everything from how they came up with the pricing for the Ultra Deluxe version, to spoiler guides, to spoilers in general (with a madlibs chart), to streaming is touched on. I don't want to spoil much more, but suffice to say it's a very similar feel in terms of how the Aperture company rolls from the Portal u?niverse. There's even an "h?onor system" certificate at the end so you can pat yourself on the back!

As for impressions on the game itself, expect? those i??n the near future from our staff.

The post Even the Stanl??ey Parable: Ultra Deluxe website is clever appeared first on Destructoid.

It's back and better than ever

The Stanley Parable is known as being one of the most innovative games in recent memory, so it's pretty hard to wrap my head around the fact that we're approaching the eleventh anniversary of the original Stanley Parable mod that was released for Half-Life 2 in 2011. The original was an experimental narrative adventure that breaks expectations of what a video game is supposed to be, and plays with ideas of player autonomy and choice. It's been more influential than we realize I think, so it's only fitting that The Stanley Parable is getting a huge upgrade for its Ultra Deluxe edition.

Developer Crows Crows Crows announced the rerelease of the game all the way back at the Game Awards in 2018, but the project was delayed three separate times in the years since. Thankfully, it's finally finished, and The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is headed our?? way. Not only is the game coming to consoles for the first time on April 27, but long-time fans will also have something new to look forw??ard to, as the game's script has been expanded upon to make for an even longer run time.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMoMi1gMXFc

According to IGN, a representative from Crows Crows Crows expressed their excitement to return to their cult classic title: "Early in development, the plan was just to bring The Stanley Parable to consoles with?? a few small tweaks, but as time went on we kept getting more and more exc?ited about what else we could do with the game."

I for one can't wai??t to play through the game again and discover those new surprises, and I'm also excited to see the game in the spotlight again. It's one of those titles that's old enough to have an entirely new audience all these years later, so it'll be nice to see it return to the collective consciousness for a little while.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is dropping on Steam, Nintendo Switch, PC?, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One on April 27.

The post The Stanley Parable’s Deluxe Edition is coming out in April appeared first on Destructoid.