Pure Chess: It's Time To Get Hype

[Earnest Cavalli]

Pure Chess: It's Time To Get Hype


A chess game? With an awesome trailer? I'm as baffled as you are.

As the name would suggest, Pure Chess is an upcoming videogame simulation of the centuries-old, cerebral board game. It's in development by the largely unknown VooFoo Studios, will be published by the equally unknown RebelPlay Ltd., and is scheduled for release on the PlayStation 3 and Sony's imminent PlayStation Vita handheld. To most gamers this nebulous pedigree would suggest a budget-priced title destined for the bargain bin.

Then you watch the trailer and suddenly, inexplicably, confusingly find yourself excited for an upcoming videogame based on a pasttime that, in most mainstream media, serves as cultural shorthand for "boring nerd."

Not that the trailer is full of bombastic action or high-stakes tension between characters -- this is still a game where you slide pawns one-space-at-a-time across a checkered board -- but it's almost Gran Turismo 5-esque in its classic aesthetic appeal. Did you see those rooks? Straight up, those were some gorgeous rooks (and I say that as a guy who considers himself purely a "bishop man").

I still don't have much faith that Pure Chess will knock Modern Warfare 3 off the top of the sales charts, but I gotta hand it to the development team. If the goal of a trailer is to convince viewers to keep an eye out for the day your game actually hits shelves, this clip is a smashing success.

Now I just hope they can find a way to nerf the Queen. That eff-bag has been OP since day one.


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[lacktheknack]

I am going to buy a Vita just because of this game now. Good job, trailer!

 

[redisforever]

...wow...
Are those in-game graphics? Those are nice!

Still, I have chess on my Palm Treo 650.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

I prefer to play strip Chess IRL, now that's fun!

 

[Kimarous]

*looks at more medieval-style pieces*

They forgot to add the kings playing with them and the intercut siege parallels.

 

[NZpablo]

Did anybody notice the pawns were the same style as the opening vid from Age of Empires 2

 

[Kyrinn]

*looks at more medieval-style pieces*

They forgot to add the kings playing with them and the intercut siege parallels.

I see what you did there, and I was thinking pretty much the same while watching this.

OT: While I find chess games to be pretty boring, this is a cool video. Chess videogames I mean, real life chess is quite enjoyable.

 

[AmrasCalmacil]

Why don't all chess games include saxon style pieces?
It would certainly please me more when I'm indulging in my guilty pleasure of Chess Titans.

 

[Xanadu84]

..Honestly, it just looks like a chess game to me. A pretty chess game, sure. There's some serious graphics there. Its a pretty chess game. But its still just a chess game.

 

[BeerTent]

I have this game already.

It's back home with a layer of dust over it.

Graphics don't make a game. Perhaps if we have a good AI, a true chess enthusiast will enjoy it. But odds are, they probably already have a copy on their computer.

 

[Azuaron]

Unless the pieces come alive and beat the crap out of each other (Battle Chess!) I just don't care.

 

[omicron1]

*looks at more medieval-style pieces*

They forgot to add the kings playing with them and the intercut siege parallels.

Darnit, ninja'd.

I am not familiar with that particular chess set - is it an historic item? A well-known design? Directly cribbed from Ensemble Studios?

 

[ph0b0s123]

Unless the pieces come alive and beat the crap out of each other (Battle Chess!) I just don't care.

Ninja-ed.... Seconded, Battle Chess remake ftw.

Edit: Already on the way. From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Chess

"A new version of Battle Chess is currently in development by Subdued Software via a license from Interplay Entertainment. It is set for a release date of Summer 2011 for the PC and iPad/iPhone."

Now will just have to wait and see if they turn it into an FPS as they seem to be doing with most franchise remakes....

 

[D0WNT0WN]

Unless the pieces come alive and beat the crap out of each other (Battle Chess!) I just don't care.

Proper wizarding style wizard chess, I would buy that.

 

[Agente L]

*looks at more medieval-style pieces*

They forgot to add the kings playing with them and the intercut siege parallels.

Great one there.

The graphics looks really nice. I hope it has many different sets, so it can bring a refreshing change to the same good millenia-ol' chess.

 

[Rutskarn]

I prefer to play strip Chess IRL, now that's fun!

Is it a simple piece=forfeit system, or does the point value of the captured piece come into it?

 

[Catalyst6]

Now I just hope they can find a way to nerf the Queen. That eff-bag has been OP since day one.

Queen is fine, noob, nerf Bishop plox.

OT: I'm not exactly sure what they mean by "Pure" Chess. No abnormal rules? Or perhaps Tournament Rules? Hmmm.

 

[Not-here-anymore]

Playstation exclusive? This is bullshit! Where will us xbox owners get our chess fix? It's not like anyone plays real life chess anymore. It's unhygienic or something.

 

[Worgen]

Still doesn't look as good as battle chess.

 

[Callate]

Are they trying to sell chess, or the fantasy of being the kind of person who has nothing better to do than play chess in their gorgeous modernist seven-figure skyline apartment?