The Cave Message Board

Humble Bundle is back with another serving of high-profile Android games, featuring Double Fine's The Cave, Fireproof Games' The Room 2 and other standout apps in the newly launched Humble Mobile Bundle 5.

Pay at least $1 and you'll get Crescent Moon Games' action-RPG Aralon: Sword and Shadow, Hidden Variable's grocery-bagging puzzler Bag It!, and an Android port of Irem's classic arcade shooter R-Type 2. The Room 2, The Cave, and Carcassonne are available for buyers who beat the bundle's average purchase price (currently under $4), and more games will be added at a later date.

Humble Mobile Bundle 5 will be available through April 29.

[Video: Humble Bundle]

The Cave is free right now on the Amazon Appstore, both in the US and UK, and apparently across the retailer's worldwide sites. That's despite the spelunking adventure only hitting Android a week ago, and still being priced $5 on Google Play.

The Amazon Appstore does offer free apps of the day, but today's is listed as Cogs, so The Cave's sudden free-dom is certainly a touch curious. We've not seen any official word from Double Fine on the matter, so we've reached out to the studio for clarification.

Double Fine puzzle-platformer hiked its way to three and a half stars in our review of the Xbox Live Arcade version: As Ludwig put it, "The Cave turns out to be the cruelest of Double Fine's games, and perhaps the most sharply written. Ron Gilbert and Chris Remo miss on the explicit narration, but their underlying story is perfectly pitched through puzzles and your own wicked participation."

Android fans need go without oddball adventure game The Cave no longer, as the game found its way to that platform late last week. The Cave costs $4.99 on the Google Play store, and arrived a few weeks after making an appearance on Ouya.

The adventure game comes from The Secret of Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert and Double Fine, the developer Gilbert left in March. The Cave first launched in January on PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Mac, Linux and Wii U. Our review of the XBLA version considered it the "cruelest of Double Fine's games," noting its sharp writing and somewhat tiresome repetition.

Surprise! Double Fine's lovely turn-based RPG Costume Quest just popped up on the iTunes store. Between this and The Cave last week, could Psychonauts iOS be on the horizon? Here's hoping they can get the rights to Day of the Tentacle, too.Read more...

The Cave is coming to iOS this week on Thursday, October 3. Sega made the announcement on its blog today, pricing the iOS port at $4.99 (£2.99/ €4.49) for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.

Created by Double Fine in collaboration with Ron Gilbert, The Cave is an adventure game centered around a talking cave that lures in unsuspecting adventurers. In our review, we enjoyed the "sharply written" story, calling it "perfectly pitched through puzzles and your own wicked participation."

The Cave, Double Fine's latest adventure game, is heading to iOS, Touchgen reports, citing a hands-on preview at E3 last week. Sega published The Cave on PC, Mac, Linux, Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii U in January, but clearly that's not enough, and the game is due out this summer on iOS.

The Cave on iOS doesn't have virtual analog sticks or buttons, but allows the player to tap and drag characters around the map, and choose characters with a poke on their respective icons along the bottom of the screen, the hands-on report notes.

The Cave features seven characters with murky morals and, at times, even murkier gameplay, we found. There's no word on how much the iOS version will cost, but the price shouldn't be any steeper than the walls of that deep, dark, sentient cave.

With all the top-notch game engines out there, and next-gen on the horizon, video games are impressive in both their technology and their art. But let's play around with c64yourself to squeeze recently released games into an old timey skin anyway. The tool converts images (under 2MB) to 16 color, making the shot look like it's from a Commodore 64 game, straight from the 80s. In order, the screens here are from: Guacamelee!, Bioshock: Infinite, Sim City, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, Castlevania: Mirror of Fate, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, Crysis 3 and The Cave. I picked games that were released in the past few months, and it could work out really well for some older titles as well as for some upcoming ones. Make sure to visit the site c64yourself, drag and drop some screenshots that are under 2MB and post the best results in the comments!

Spec Ops: The Line rocked your Instant Game Collection at the start of March, and Joe Danger 2: The Movie rode in last week. This week, you’ll find The Cave, as well as Tekken 6 available free for PlayStation Plus members. You’ll also find deals on fantastic games like Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken, among others.

Don’t forget that the Get $10 For Every $50 Spent promotion is still on, but ending at the end of March. That means if you purchased a 1 year PS Plus membership at $49.99, you’re already set to get $10 back on or around April 12th. We’ll cover you on that extra penny. And yes, it’s stackable.

March 19th PlayStation Plus Update

The Cave (PS3)

PSN Price: $14.99, Free for PS Plus members

The Cave is a new adventure game from Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion creator Ron Gilbert, and Double Fine Productions. Assemble your team of three from seven unlikely adventurers, each with their own unique personalities and stories, then descend into the mysterious depths to explore locations including a subterranean amusement park and a medieval castle, not to mention a fully armed and ready-to-launch nuclear tipped ICBM. The Cave awaits. Tekken 6 (PSP, Supported on PS Vita)

PSN Price: $19.99, Free for PS Plus members

Armed with the largest character roster ever in TEKKEN history, a robust single player game experience, countless mutiplayer and online options, and an addictive character customization system, the greatest fighting game franchise soars is here for PS Vita and PSP owners to add to their Instant Game Collection!

Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken

40% Discount for PS Plus members

Set out on a mission to assassinate the totalitarian penguin leader as Hardboiled Chicken. Destroy enemies with a slew of weapons and illuminate the secrets to his past while uncovering the real enemies of Albatropolis. Master fowl play in the co-op campaign as a pair of Budgie commandos on a mission to save the general’s daughter. Many lives will be destroyed, countless penguins will die!

• PS3 Version (PSN Price: $11.99; PS Plus Price: $7.19)
• PS Vita Version (PSN Price: $9.99; PS Plus Price: $5.99)

Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational Course and Character Pack

25% Discount for PS Plus members (PSN Price: $11.99; PS Plus Price: $8.99)

Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational is an incredibly fun and accessible golf experience on PS Vita. If you already have the game, here’s your chance to download all 3x characters (Erika, Gloria, & Kat) and 3x courses (Mt. Sakura, Northern Fox, & Mar Cielo). If you don’t have the game, you can add it to your download list here; then hop on this great deal for even more content. Read more about these Add-ons from the PS Blog’s post last week as well. What’s your favorite content from this week’s update?

You’ll find all the content detailed above with their Plus benefits active when the PlayStation Store updates on 3/19. Got more questions on Plus? Leave your comments below, or, if you’re looking to engage with more of the PS community, head over to the PlayStation Community Forums to discuss this week’s news more, find other topics to contribute your thoughts to, or start one for yourself. See you in the comments!

Last Chance (Leaving on 3/26)

Instant Game Collection
Plants vs. Zombies (PS3)

Discounts
Scott Pilgrim Ultimate Edition
Scott Pilgrim Online Multiplayer + Wallace Pack

Well, this is slightly unexpected. Ron Gilbert’s always kinda done his own thing, but sharing a colorful roof of pure, shining whimsy with partner in pirate-y crime Tim Schafer just sort of, you know, made sense. It is, however, like they say: all good things must come to an end. Also, The Cave was actually only kind of all right, so maybe this is for the best. But what’s next for the man they call “RonnyG” (and I guess also Grumpy Gamer)? Solve a series of increasingly obtuse puzzles to get past the break for more. Hint: the first one involves clicking. And also a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle.

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A portion of a C3 review...

Unfortunately, though, there are some gameplay frustrations that mar the experience, which proves to be a crying shame given how potentially great it could have been.

Full review here

A portion of a Siliconera review...

The Cave is an interesting game to present to the current generation who have never dabbled in adventure games before. It has been altered in some form to lower the entry barrier, but stumbles quite a bit due to the forced tedium of its design.

Full review here

A portion of an ONM review...

This flawed gem could have been a classic to rival the games that inspired it. Like its characters, it's well intentioned, but ultimately commits too many sins.

Full review here

Update Includes:

- Added new, super high quality anti-aliasing Super Sample Anti Aliasing. Users can enable it by toggling SSAA in the visual settings.
- Lots of fixes to various gameplay bugs that could cause characters or items to go missing, especially after loading from saves in certain spots.
- Fixed the bug that could cause the game to very rarely write out garbage/invalid save files.

A portion of an NWR review...

Ultimately, it will be easier for fans of Ron Gilbert's previous works to look past the niggling flaws and appreciate the game, but anyone should be able to enjoy writing and puzzles of this caliber.

Full review here

#thecave The characters are the highlight of Double Fine's new adventure game The Cave. Seven wanderers, each with his or her own selfish journey to undertake (and lesson to learn), each drawn in the game's groovy art style. More »

A portion of a Joystiq review...

The repetition inherent in the game's structure is severe, while also being home to a wonderful, unfurling evilness. Reliving a life over and over may be apt punishment for an adventurer's ill deeds, here in this warm place beneath the earth.

Full review here