Ritual Entertainment Unveils "SiN Episodes"

[Chris D]

The following press statement has just been released by Director of Marketing for Valve Software - Doug Lombardi.

Action-Packed Return to Freeport City Powered by the SourceTM Engine
[br]
Dallas, TX - July 7, 2005 -- Ritual Entertainment(tm) today announced the
development of SiN Episodes(tm), featuring the highly anticipated return of Elexis
Sinclaire, the world's most dangerous and seductive biochemist, and the only man who
stands in her way, John R. Blade. The sworn enemies face off in Freeport City, a
near-future mixture of San Francisco, Tokyo and New York, all set inside the
unrestricted SiN universe.
[br]
The upcoming SiN Episodes chapter entitled Emergence is the first in a series of
episodic adventures powered by the award-winning Source (tm) engine developed by
Valve®. Delivered on Steam(tm), the online content delivery system, Sin Episodes
takes a bold new step into the future of gaming.
[br]
"Combining the incredible power of the Source engine with episodic content delivery
via Steam has empowered us to raise the bar on key features of the SiN universe,
interactivity, character driven gameplay, and emergent AI," said Tom Mustaine,
cofounder and Director of Development for Ritual. [br]
"Digitally delivered episodic content is the next frontier in the games industry,"
said Steve Nix, Ritual CEO, affording the award-winning development studio
unprecedented flexibility. "Episodic development gives Ritual the opportunity to be
much more responsive to community feedback and industry trends. We can adjust our
content to deliver maximum entertainment value with each installment."
[br]
"One of our goals for Steam and Source is to provide a viable platform for
independent developers who would rather be working on original IP," said Gabe
Newell, founder and president of Valve. "It's great to be working with Ritual again
as they take this pioneering step for the industry. I look forward to purchasing my
copy of SiN: Emergence."
[br]
SiN Episodes expands on the role of Colonel John R. Blade, a battle worn hero in
charge of HardCorps, an elite strike force with a long history of conflict with
SinTEK, a powerful multibillion dollar empire headed up by Elexis Sinclaire, a
beautiful, brilliant, and ruthless scientist who is out to remake humanity according
to her own twisted vision. Joining Blade on his mission are JC, a HardCorps hacker
with a secret to keep, and Jessica Cannon, a fiery rookie who can find her way into
any secure facility.
[br]
SiN Episodes: Emergence features never before seen weapons, characters and
environments along with a host of interactive options, paying homage to its
predecessors, SiN and its expansion pack, Wages of SiN, which set a new bar for
interactivity. Additional information and purchasing options will be announced on
www.sinepisodes.com or www.steampowered.com at a later date.
[br]
An 8-page preview of SiN Episodes: Emergence is featured in PCGamer UK's August
issue, which hits newsstands on July 7th, 2005. The article includes exclusive
images from the game along with additional materials available on the accompanying
PCGamer UK DVD.
[br]
About Ritual[br]
Ritual Entertainment, a Dallas, Texas-based game development studio, has been a
consistent leader in the evolution of content and technology for some of today's
most successful console and PC games. Established in August 1996, Ritual is known
for its ability to develop both internal and external properties with award winning
results. More on Ritual Entertainment can be found at www.ritual.com.
[br]
About Valve[br]
Valve is an entertainment software and technology company founded in 1996 and based
in Bellevue, Washington. The company's portfolio of entertainment titles includes
Half-Life®, Counter-StrikeTM, Day of DefeatTM, and Team Fortress®. Valve's portfolio
of titles accounts for over 18 million retail units sold worldwide, and over 88% of
the PC online action market. In addition, Valve is a developer of leading-edge
technologies, such as the Source game engine and Steam, a broadband platform for the
delivery and management of digital content. For more information, please visit
www.valvesoftware.com.
[br]
Valve, Source, Steam, Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Day of Defeat and Team Fortress are
trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Valve Corporation.
[br]
© Ritual Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved. Ritual Entertainment and Sin
Episodes are trademarks or registered trademarks of Ritual Entertainment Inc. All
other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Stay tuned for more information on the game and its release over Steam shortly. The PC Gamer UK article is very informative and has some good screenshots in there for fans of the Source engine. If you don't live in the UK, residents of Europe or the rest of the world can subscribe to the magazine by visiting this website. Of course you've missed the chance of receiving this issue, but PC Gamer UK often has exclusive previews of games and exclusive reviews, often before any one else.

 

[StardogChampion]

Are there in-game shots, or just concept art?

 

[Ennui]

8 page special, im sure there will be a few.

 

[Chris D]

I can confirm that they're in-game shots.

 

[^Ben]

Looks any good?

 

[Chris D]

Looks like the Source engine

 

[^Ben]

Might flick through the mag tommorow.

 

[63]

I'm confused.

 

[boglito]

This could be very good.
Time to update sig.

.bog.

 

[Chris D]

I'm confused.

Why are you confused?

 

[Varsity]

Working site link: http://www.ritual.com/sineps/

For a short moment I thought the woman was in-game.

 

[63]

Why are you confused?

Because I've never heard of Ritual or SiN before

 

[Chris D]

SiN was unfortunately not as successful as it possibly could have been because it was released in the shadow of the original Half-Life. Ritual have developed lots of games and engine technologies for games such as Opposing Force (that was a new one on me too... possibly the Steam conversion), James Bond: Nightfire, Counter-Strike (including Condition Zero, XBox etc.), Black Hawk Down and loads more that I can't remember right now; but they've certainly done a lot of good work over the years.

You should be able to find the original game, somewhere.

 

[63]

SiN was unfortunately not as successful as it possibly could have been because it was released in the shadow of the original Half-Life. Ritual have developed lots of games and engine technologies for games such as Opposing Force (that was a new one on me too... possibly the Steam conversion), James Bond: Nightfire, Counter-Strike (including Condition Zero, XBox etc.), Black Hawk Down and loads more that I can't remember right now; but they've certainly done a lot of good work over the years.

You should be able to find the original game, somewhere.

Thanks for the update. Can't wait for screens

edit: http://www.ritual.com/index.php?section=games/overview

quite the portfolio :thumbs:

 

[Chris D]

Buy the magazine - it's well worth the money. It's got a developer interview with Bill Fletcher, Bill Van Buren and Marc Laidlaw in there (Valve Producer/Designer, Animator and Writer).

 

[Varsity]

I tried to find a copy yesterday (even though it wasn't out) but all I could find was one from four months ago!

 

[63]

Buy the magazine - it's well worth the money. It's got a developer interview with Bill Fletcher, Bill Van Buren and Marc Laidlaw in there (Valve Producer/Designer, Animator and Writer).

Yes, I know who they are

Don't know how I would get my hands on a PCGUK though...

 

[Chris D]

Aren't you in the UK?

 

[ray_MAN]

Is there any way to import magazines? I don't want it desperately, but it would be nice.

 

[Chris D]

I've heard there's various places in America that sell the UK version of PCG.

 

[63]

Not in Vancouver though heh.

 

[]-UnderTOW-[]

Because I've never heard of Ritual or SiN before

Urge to slap... rising...

 

[Pesmerga]

Because I've never heard of Ritual or SiN before

You're not alone.

 

[]-UnderTOW-[]

...rising!

 

[nutcrackr]

lol undertow

I remember playing SiN long ago, twas quite a good game back then. This certainly sounds very promising, one thing bothering me is Chris_D says "release over Steam shortly". Do you know something we don't or more correctly I don't?

 

[UndeadScottsman]

SiN was unfortunately not as successful as it possibly could have been because it was released in the shadow of the original Half-Life. Ritual have developed lots of games and engine technologies for games such as Opposing Force (that was a new one on me too... possibly the Steam conversion), James Bond: Nightfire, Counter-Strike (including Condition Zero, XBox etc.), Black Hawk Down and loads more that I can't remember right now; but they've certainly done a lot of good work over the years.

You should be able to find the original game, somewhere.

Say what? Gearbox made Opposing Force. The new deathmatch maps in Op4 were farmed out to the top level designers in the industry at the time, but that also includes people from Epic as well as Ritual and a few other companies.

The thing you need to realize about their little "games we have worked on" blurb on their website is that they put ANY game their related to, no matter how small, on it. Ritual has had a habit of this, often stating it was the company responsible for Duke Nukem 3D when in reality only one person was even a coreteam member of the DN3D team when the ritual guys bailed on 3D Realms. Like I said, some of their guys made a few DM maps for Op4, and it's quite possible that some of the Gearbox guys now work at Ritual, hence why they stuck it on the "Games we contributed to" list.

 

[]-UnderTOW-[]

Like I said, some of their guys made a few DM maps for Op4, and it's quite possible that some of the Gearbox guys now work at Ritual, hence why they stuck it on the "Games we made" list.

Are you dyslexic? OpFor and Bond, etc are listed under the "What We've Contributed to" section, not the "What We've Done" section.

Althought technically it's wrong of Chris_D to have said that Ritual developed those. I can understand why he'd mention OpFor though. Ritual are best known for SiN, Fakk2 and Elite Force 2. Their first project was the first Quake 1 mission pack, Scourge of Armagon, under the name Hypnotic.

 

[UndeadScottsman]

Are you dyslexic? OpFor and Bond, etc are listed under the "What We've Contributed to" section, not the "What We've Done" section.

Althought technically it's wrong of Chris_D to have said that Ritual developed those. I can understand why he'd mention OpFor though. Ritual are best known for SiN, Fakk2 and Elite Force 2. Their first project was the first Quake 1 mission pack, Scourge of Armagon, under the name Hypnotic.

Been a few weeks since I've read that website. "Game's we made" should have been "Game's we've contributed to." Hence while I earlier mentioned I was talking about the "games we have worked on" section. My apologies.

EDIT: What in the name of Satan's chedder? Your name really messes up the quote feature, Undertow

 

[Geogriffith]

Elexis Sinclaire, the world's most dangerous and seductive biochemist

With a line like that, you know the game's gotta be good :E

 

[]-UnderTOW-[]

Been a few weeks since I've read that website. "Game's we made" should have been "Game's we've contributed to." Hence while I earlier mentioned I was talking about the "games we have worked on" section. My apologies.

Ah, i see. Maybe they also got an earful from people and changed it Seems pretty astute now.

EDIT: What in the name of Satan's chedder? Your name really messes up the quote feature, Undertow

Yeah, i know. Quote me and be damned! MWAHAHAHAHA!!

 

[wlodi]

First? Sin: Episodes screenshots at Filerush.

 

[loadqm]

First? Sin: Episodes screenshots at Filerush.

There's a bunch more here too.

 

[Kazuki_Fuse]

Looks sharp.

 

[BladeTurbo]

First? Sin: Episodes screenshots at Filerush.

Maybe it's me, but i think they look too cartoonish.

 

[Insano]

Maybe it's me, but i think they look too cartoonish.

It seems more polished than cartoonish to me.

 

[StardogChampion]

I just wanna see it in action before I judge, since the screenshots probably don't do it much justice.

 

[JCampbell]

What's with the so obvious thong? I mean, now all the people playing this are going to be posting stupid screenshots like they did with Alyx; she didn't even have suggestive clothing either.