Sup Holmes burns bright with Jasper Byrne

The last time we had Jasper Byrne on Sup Holmes, he had just released his critically acclaimed survival horror title Lone Survivor. Like his Silent Hill 2 remake Soundless Mountain II, Jasper made Lone Survivor largely on his own. Unlike Soundless Mountain II, Lone Survivor was that you could pay for, which was something Jasper was not used to. The transition from being a freeware developer to a for-profit indie brings brings with it some interesting psychological challenges. 

Now Lone Survivor is headed to the PS3 and the PS Vita, which likely to be just as scary and exciting (for both Jasper and the players) as the game's initial release on PC was. Jasper's been hard at work on the new version of the game, adding new content and working to make the transition to consoles as smooth as possible. Plus he's working on a new game called... New Game+. I imagine he's pretty busy.

We'll be talking to Jasper about all that, as well as subjects we didn't have the time to fully delve into last time (like the representation of psychiatric symptoms in videogame characters), and whatever else comes up. Join us at 1pm PST/4pm EST in the live stream chat below!

CounterSpy takes inspiration from classic side-scrollers

The first thing you'll notice about CounterSpy is its unique art style. Really, you can say that about a lot of the indie titles Sony has been picking up lately, but there's something extra special about this one. That probably has to do with the fact that the ten-man team at Dynamighty is comprised of ex-LucasArts and Pixar folks.

As you can probably tell from the title, CounterSpy has you playing as a spy tasked with infiltrating two opposing superpowers in order to sabotage their weapons of mass destruction.

Ghost of a Tale meets funding goal, play your mouse lute!

Ghost of a Tale, the promising game starring a mouse with a LUTE AND A HAT, made its crowdfunding goal of 45.000€ last night. There shall be much rejoicing. 

The game caught attention through its incredible design, carrying the familiar bleakness of titles like Dark Souls, combined with a Tales of the Riverbank animal aesthetic. The result is something that lies between grim and adorable. It also features undead pirate skeleton rats and frogs with little armored breastplates made out of shells. Because this is awesome.

All that remains is for Lionel Gallat to finish the job, with the help of folks he can now pay thanks to this recent success. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed and my foot tapping impatiently. Can't wait to see more of this.

Arc returns to their roots with Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-

When Arc Systems Works created BlazBlue, many assumed that Guilty Gear as we knew it was over. Guilty Gear 2: Overture certainly wasn't very encouraging. Well surprise surprise, Guilty Gear is back, with series co-creator Daisuke Ishiwatari is at the helm, running on the Unreal engine.

Polygon margarine on Guilty Gear muffin? Say it ain't so, Ma! Wait a minute, are you sure you put polygons in this? It sure tastes like 2D sprite-based butter to me. There even appear to be traditional frame-by-frame animations, a perfect fit for the kind of lightning fast, easily cancel-able attacks that 2D fighting game fans crave. Could this be the greatest imitation of hand-drawn art every achieved by a group of polygons?

We'll just have to stay tuned to find out.

Rejoice?! Arc Sys announces Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN- [Japanator]

Demon Chic is full of surprises

Destructoid produces a weekly podcast called Podtoid. Our reviews editor Jim Sterling often uses it as a platform for spontaneous free association, improvising nightmarish, hilarious, largely unpredictable scenarios on a weekly basis. Most recently he imagined Destructoid Managing Editor Conrad Zimmerman as a Hellraiser-style demon named "F*ck Tape" (illustration by Sarah Thomas). 

People often ask us to take the ideas spawned from Podtoid and put them into a videogame. We're probably never going to do that, but if that's really what you're looking for in life, then check out Demon Chic. In fact, I've heard rumor that the game's developers listen to Podtoid from time to time. Sort of makes sense.

Demon Chic is a hard game to describe. One might say it's a crossbreed between Warioware, Earthbound, and The Curse of Monkey Island. One might not. I suggest you play it for yourself, especially if you listen to our podcast. It's probably the closest thing to a Podtoid game as we're ever going to see. Get it here.