Dante's Inferno Message Board older than one year ago

Should you raise some hell with this action game?

Should you raise some hell with this action game?

God of Bore.

God of Bore.

It's the first time EA has ever advertised during the big game. Watch it here.

It's the first time EA has ever advertised during the big game. Watch it here.

In the introduction to the EA Games-approved, Del Rey Books-published edition of the classic epic poem Inferno, Visceral Games Executive Producer Jonathan Knight asks a question about the video game Dante's Inferno that many people think they already know the answer to: "Is Dante Alighieri Laughing, or Rolling, in His Grave?" Plenty of game journalists, commentators, and fans who have seen the game's promotions and advertising would probably answer, "Of course he is!" but Knight lays out a reasoned and well-argued case that Visceral's new game follows in a long and esteemed tradition of interpreting Italian literature's most famous work. It may or may not change your mind, but Knight's position is definitely worth consideration.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, CBS required some editing to EA's Super Bowl ad for Dante's Inferno before it would expose America's fragile hive mind to it. No, it's not because of all the demons and the brimstone and stuff, but rather due to the game's widely-used tag line "Go to Hell." As you can seen in the clip after the jump, it's replaced by "Hell Awaits." The change is likely because of worries about offending conservative viewers, but we're secretly hoping that Doritos is launching a new super spicy chip during the big game and it just didn't want Dante copying its line. [Via Eurogamer]

Players can create trial levels and share them online.

Players can create trial levels and share them online.

30-second spot introduces 100M viewers to hell in fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLIV.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Dante's Inferno executive producer Jonathan Knight responded curiously to a query about the possibility of upcoming adaptations of the other two installments in the Divine Comedy, Purgatorio and Paradiso. According to the Times, "Knight said his team was focused on the release of Dante's Inferno as well as on additional downloadable content for that game," though he later confessed "I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought about that." We think Visceral's missing out on a great chance to kill two birds with one stone -- why not make Purgatorio and Paradiso DLC packs for Inferno? For instance, a few months after the game comes out, release a patch that makes the game's load times last for 49 days. Boom. Purgatorio in the bag.

There is no shortage of button-mashing action titles coming in 2010, and Dante's Inferno is right around the corner. Promising buckets of blood, brooding and boobs, the team at Visceral Games hope to capture the overlapping fans of both literary masterpieces and punching monsters in the face. It's like an obvious Venn diagram of awesome. Well, until someone finally turns Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret into a collectible card game.

A short gameplay montage shows many of the beasts and demons Dante must defeat on his quest to save the love of his life.

Because the Dante's Inferno marketing department obviously knows what it's doing, IndustryGamers reports that EA bought up some ad time during next month's Super Bowl, presumably in the hopes that some of the people watching will care enough to pick up the game when it's releases two days later. We have to wonder how many of these sports-watching people -- who are ostensibly not as interested in 14th century epic poetry -- will care about a guy with a self-inflicted sewing nightmare on his chest waging war through Hell. So, here's ample warning. When your parents inevitably drag you over to your uncle's house to watch the San Bernardino Flim-Flams take on the Texarkana Whatsits, and your little cousin -- you know, the one way too into Dashboard Confessional with the closet full of long-sleeve shirts with thumb holes cut out -- sees the ad and goes bananas, know that Joystiq gave you the heads up. We love you like that.

These are dire times for ye olde book industry. Dire indeed. A special printing of Dante's Inferno -- like, the book -- hopes to capitalize on "the hottest game around." Due January 19 in book stores, this new edition from Del Rey (of the Random House empire) features an introduction by executive producer Jonathan Knight and 16 pages of colorful artwork from "the action adventure blockbuster that's rocking the video-game world." There's a 14th-century epic poem squeezed in there, too. Perhaps best used as a bargaining chip for kids desperate to convince their parents that they should be allowed to play a game based on a literary classic, however "mature" it might be, this damned tie-in is unlikely to ascend to the heavenly gates of the bestsellers list. Still, if Visceral Games' clone adaptation inspires even a single player to check out the original poem, then that would be a beautiful thing. Hell, it would be divine!

We're ... we're just not sure we understand the reasoning behind Dante's Inferno's eighth circle, Fraud, depicted in the trailer above. See, Visceral Games has brought the concept of the circle's 10 Malebolges to life in the game in form of 10 arenas, where Dante must battle all the enemies he's fought in previous levels in succession. While doing so, he must navigate dark corridors where, according to art director Ash Huang, "you really can't see where you're going." Well, that actually sounds pretty faithful to the source material. It also sounds immeasurably frustrating. Check out the trailer above to find out where politicians go, and make sure you tune in for the final Dante's trailer in February to catch a glimpse of Mr. Beel Z. Bubb himself.

Explore the Eighth Circle of Hell, filled with the bankers, the politicians and other fraudulent liars, in this developer diary from Electronic Arts.

Filed under: Xbox Live Marketplace Because nothing goes with the egg nog and sugar cookies as well as baby murder, right? As expected, the demo for Dante's Inferno has descended into the seventh level of the Xbox Live marketplace, which means that you Xbox Live Gold members can hack and slash your way past all of the buzz and see if the gameplay floats your ferry right across the River Styx. The demo is 1GB in size, and while we didn't see it available on the console itself (though it should be there soon), you can follow this link on over to the Xbox website and queue up the download from there. Just don't come crying to us when Grandma's shocked after walking in and seeing what you're doing on the "gamebox." Make sure you know where the smelling salts are.

Go to Hell this Christmas with best holiday wishes from Dante's Inferno.

Satisfy your greed with a sneak peek at the upcoming release of Dante's Inferno, courtesy of GameTrailers.com!

Would it be possible to use Dante Alighieri's spinning corpse in oil derricks, as as a sort of fleshy drill, or perhaps to power a large centrifuge? That might be a real opportunity if Dante's Inferno executive producer Jonathan Knight gets to make a follow-up to his forthcoming adaptation, a hope he elaborated on for G4. There's a hitch though: While Knight knows that EA will want a sequel to the game if it performs well, he's not sure that the follow up in The Divine Comedy, Purgatorio, will lend itself as well to a game. ... So Visceral can turn one of the great literary works into a game about a scythe-wielding maniac fighting nipple-born monsters, but making a game about the seven-layer Mount of Purgatory that ends in Earthly Paradise is beyond it? Really?

In an inspiring attempt to try and take even more gratuitous liberties with the works of Dante Alighieri, Visceral Games has announced a Europe-only special edition bundle of its upcoming Hell-based action title, Dante's Inferno. The "Death Edition" bundle comes with a copy of the poem, some making-of documentaries, and an art book. However, its greatest bonus is a new skin for the game's scythe-wielding protagonist: The slot-helmeted outfit of Dead Space's hero, Isaac Clarke. Check out the full costume after the jump. Now that we think of it, there's something pretty similar to this cross-promotion in the text of Dante's epic poem: "I saw multitudes to every side of me; their howls were loud while, wheeling weights, they used their chests to push. They struck against each other; at that point, this space miner came in and killed them with this big scythe. Needless to say, it was pretty [expletive deleted] radical." Source: Console Planet (Google Translate)

Get an extra long look at the gameplay featured in the Dante's Inferno demo!

You might be wondering exactly how Visceral Games managed to get a level themed after "Violence" into Dante's Inferno -- a game where the lead character spends roughly 100% of his time killing anything near him. We were wondering too, and so it was really nice of Visceral Games and EA to release the above dev diary for the "month of violence" that the game's marketing campaign is currently embracing to promote the game's level based on the seventh circle of Hell. The real question now: what can we expect EA's marketing team during this month's theme? We're not sure just yet, but given its recent track record, we're hoping no one goes to our Editor-in-Chief's house to give him a lesson or two in violence.

The crew behind Dante's Inferno join the long legacy of interpretors and fans of the legendary poem.

This bone-crushing gameplay from the upcoming Dante's Inferno demo is not for the meek.

New pack includes developer commentaries, soundtrack, and more

EA has detailed a special edition of Dante's Inferno, titled the "Divine Edition," which is coming exclusively to the PlayStation 3 next February. For the same $60 the Xbox 360 version costs, EA will give you the "special edition," which includes a developer commentary, a Wayne Barlowe "digital art book," the game's soundtrack, and ... wait for it ... a digitized "complete Longfellow translation of Dante Alighieri's Inferno." That's right, folks -- you can read the classic work on the same system that's being used to tear it apart. The demo is currently available on the PlayStation Network and will land on Xbox Live on December 24th.

In case you were wondering what Dante's Inferno would be like if it were made into a book, EA has just announced that the first issue of the Wildstorm comic book based on Visceral's upcoming action game has shipped to retailers. The first installment of the six-issue miniseries, for which the full cover art can be seen after the break, provides the background for Dante's demon-slayin': the murder of Beatrice, and Dante's subsequent trip into the abyss to rescue her soul. If the concept is something you're into, and if the cover art captures your attention, why not swing by your local comic shop on the way to Hell?