Nice to see you agree with me. They very much appear to look like gun shots, and the bullets don't reach in that deep becuase of his thick muscles.

Edit: 10 pages! :D

My first reaction to the holes were either stab wounds or gunshot wounds. However, it really could be anything, even just a small detail to add to the toughness of the character. But I thihk it would make the most sense if they were bite marks, just because of the whole rabies thing.

Plus, Fangus sounds like Angus.

A scottish anti-hero...sounds diabolically delicious.

Oh, and to answer jacob's quandary about him being a bit muscular for a shepard, bear in mind that shepards have to defend their sheep no matter what. Depending on what kinds of fiends like to munch on Oddworldian sheep, who knows how much iron he'd have to pump to knock 'em back.

The race against time things sounds interesting. Maybe the game would be timed (either all the way or just the first half or something), and as the clock counts down (You'd have a meter), you'd get tougher and more powerful...of course, you'd be that much closer to dying too.

Just a few worries from me...because that's what I do.

-I have little-to-no problem with a somewhat darker atmosphere. The original two games were dark, and I loved them. Munch's Oddysee, with all due respect, is a little too, "bright." However, an M rating...one wonders what they'll be puting in it. Hopefully they can keep it a T. I pray that they can.

-What about the quintology and unlikely heroes? Sure, guns and (excuse me for this, but) badass heroes are, if you will, in...but conformity just strangles. Besides, I'm missing Abe. I don't mind a tangent or two right now, but I eventually want to play that last bonus game of that last instalment of the quintology.

-A satire of the War on Terror. Personally, I hope not (Just a tad bit political and controversial). I mean, so is slavery and animal testing...but most people can agree those are evil. Something like the War on Terror is just, for lack of better words, too controversial. Someone's going to yell at me for saying that, but I needed to get that out.

Now, Leorne create Oddworld, and if he really wants to go in this direction I can not and will not stop him, and (Feelings aside) will probably buy said game anyway. Still...

BTW...isn't Game Informer the one that does an April Fools every year? I know there is one, so maybe they collaborated with OWI or something, and this is their's.

Whatever...I just hope Leorne and crew know what they're doing and do what they think is best.

P.S. Sorry if I ruined the party with my be-moaning.

EDIT: This has to be a prank. I mean, come on...Fangus AND Fangustan? Popberry feilds? Lame, lame, lame. Surely the Oddworld staff could do better than that.

In response to some of Nepharski's worries:

I think the M rating is because of the dark themes rather than violence, I don't think Sherry would let it become too violent. I wouldn't mind a whole lot of gore, but that's just me.

The game is most likely using the OSW engine, so they pretty much have no choice but to make a gun totting brute. I don't think they've jumped ship just yet.

I think that pretty much all those magazines do an April Fools thing, but this looks and sounds too real. I don't think they are that clever, and if they are, they did a good job of tricking numerous websites.

I wouldn't trust GI to get the facts all right so early on, but maybe there are very good reasons for those names. Everybody went nuts when they heard what the live ammo was called. I think it is very possible this is fake, but I would have no problems with those names ("What's in a name?").


Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but isn't it a little too early for criticism. I mean, we don't even know if this thing is real. I know that people are very protective of the Oddworld culture, but it is the gameplay that matters at the end of the day. If they can make a good game, I'll be happy. If they can make that same game in a year, we should all be celebrating. Oh well, the same thing happened last year, so I can deal with it.

C'mon. That "picture" of "Fangus" looks an awful lot like something that would just be... I don't know... and early concept of Stranger? Boots? Hat? Lion-esque? C'mon.

Well, if this thing isn't a bogus pile of horse crap, then I think it sounds great.

I mean, OWI could do so much with that template. Throwing their hat into the ring of religion? Balls! That's what it takes! The subtle details of this basic plot are great. You have the shepherd, which is the universal savior stock character. Also, he KNOWS that he is destined to die... sound familiar?

Then, if OWI really had some grapes, they could take this Jesus template character, apply him to a middle eastern setting, add an "evil" Glukkon invading force, and PRESTO! You have an ironic, startling (I mean, the mixing of religious icons alone...) look at the War on Terror from a different viewpoint; the view of invaded, NOT the invaders. Unlike Nepharski, I really REALLY wish OWI would do this.

I swear, they could do some great things with that plot... assuming it isn't bogus horse crap.

I dunno, I'll have to search hard cos I have it on Playstation so can't take a screen capture.

I wouldn't mind the name Fangus, but I don't like Fangustan.
I can't decide whether to take this information as a prank or real deal.

"This is just the beginning for Fangus" Could that mean that Fangus would have many games, therefore he couldn't die in the end?

maybe, we will play Fangus in Dead World ;]

That would be so neat :D
If you were badass in the game, you'd play your last levels in hell. If you were all well behaving you'd play them in heaven.

Off topic: Hey, nice Catslug CarboN :) Where you find it?

I'd prefer death to be a finality in this characters place, even though we know there is an afterlife on Oddworld (per se).

Just read Lukes post and i didn't actually see it from that viewpoint, but you do have an amazingly good idea that could be implemented into the OW universe if Lorne wanted to.

Saying that, however, i wonder if that was the case, how far Lorne would go with the similarities, for instance, would he have a Judas character in the game? Lorne's even said himself that he wants to get more controversial (hence that siege game based on Earth) and so it wouldn't be surprising if the Religion issue was brought up, since, in America especially, Religion is rife.

I'm going to take a random guess and say this game is going to be the last game for X-Box. Then on the next gen consoles (hopefully X-Box 2) he'll release his new game set on Earth, and then probably get on back with the quintology. He said he doesn't want to continue the Quint until the consoles meet his needs, and so it wouldn't surprise me if he waited a couple of years. Shame though.

Based on Scotland? I'm definately getting this game then. Finally a game is based on my country. And I'm not sure that is a kilt, it looks more like shorts to me. I could be wrong though. And how could they do a Scottish voice for him? Hire Sean Connery? I can't see Lorne, or anybody else who is in the team, being able to do such an accent.

The game sounds great, the only thing I don't like is the way the character looks so much like stranger. I've always loved the character designs of Oddworld. It seems like a waste to me if Fangus looks like stranger. As for the whole bite mark vs gun shot I would go with bite mark. If you look closely you can see two smaller holes near the first two, and a red ark bruise which makes it look more like a bite.

The only real realtion is see with Fangus and Stranger is that they're both muscular and they both have the same hat. Other than that, they're quite different. Fangus has 2 legs, five clawed toes, a little kilt thing, and some guns. Completely different from Stranger (besides the aforementioned things).

no doubt about it, Fangus is the next OW game
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=fangus

How come there aren't any ENGLISH sites? Oh, well.

EDIT: I just LOVE internet translators.

"Fangustan, area forest and undulating. This one will undergo the invasion of hostile creatures and will have to defend nozzle and nails its grounds."

"But a thing is sure, considering the morphology of Fangus, the galipettes of Stranger and its speed will probably leave the place to a heavy step of mastodon."

Nails its grounds? Mastodon?

Stranger have some kind of Western hat, but Fangus have (in my opinion) some kind of crushed blade (in head).

'and they both have the same hat'

Well, no, since Fangus' hat is a razorblade. And Stranger wasn't as muscly as Fangus. Whereas Stranger was nicely toned, Fangus seems beefed up.

http://www.cq-ef.net/

They have basically the same information on. Heh, i typed it in a couple of days for it and got nothing, now all of a sudden there're dozens of pages dedicated to Fangus and Oddworld. Also on that site is the mention of the Bible thumpers using 'Halo 2' as a way of preaching. Hilarious!

Alright, I'm still a tad skeptical, but I think that Alf or his assisistant would have said it was fake a few pages back if it was. Though, I doubt they would have the permission to tell us that it's real, so perhaps silence is a good thing.

I wounder why OWI left EA? It says that EA wouldn't want to produce a game so dark. Well that's good news, isn't it? No more B&W booklets , hopley Majesco will be a could friendly publisher like GT.

just because lots of sites report the GameInformer article???

What's all this talk about him having Stranger's hat? He doesn't even have a hat. All he's got is a razor blade around his forehead. I also don't even see a resemblence to Stranger, his nose looks like more of a dog nose, as well as his ears. Once again, his body is totally different, and his apparel doesn't look like anything Clint Eastwood would wear. I can't see this as an early concept of Stranger, it is way to different. I think it's pretty obvious that the character is based on a sheep dog considering the look of the guy, and the sheep around him. I don't think that was OWI's original plan for OSW.

Oh, my apologies, I thought the top of his head + the razor blade was a hat. Man, now I can look at him in a whole new light! He's looks kinda cattish, I guess.

Hmm...perhaps that might work. I have no problem with a different view of the War on Terror (In fact I would like one), if that is what they are doing (So long as it is an acurate view).

Oddworld games have had religous influences throughtout all of them, and I do not mind further influences.

As for the M rating thing...I'll just hold my breath. Never heard of a game being given a harsher rating for grim/darker content, though. Bah...whatever. I'm going to save my steam for when I hear the truth behind this whole shpeal.

BTW, as he's a shepard, maybe Leorne is barrowing from the David and Goliath story.

I agree about the M rated thing, Nepharski. I would imagine it being rated M if it was extremely violent, but not for it's dark content- I just think it would be somewhat silly to rate a game M just for some "dark content". But, for some reason, I'm still a bit skeptical over this. I just don't trust GI and I believe that they are one of the magazine sites that have pulled some big April Fools jokes before. I can't remember for sure, but I thought that they had pulled something like this before in one of their magazines and it ended up being a joke, but we'll just have to wait and see, I guess. :/ And Abe Babe, I read your post from before and you're not alone. I feel the same way as you do. ;) I feel just a bit disappointed about this myself, but if this is true, I'm sure OWI can pull it off and make this a great game anyway.

Hmmm... 10 pages is way too much to read fully (especially with so many member's I've never heard of before commenting). So after a quick skim, all I have to say is

I told you so, I told you so, I TOLD YOU SO!!!!

I've been saying for ages that OWI should go down the Majesco route, given that they're doing such a good job promoting Psychonauts (which, in case you've forgotten, was also going to be published by Microsoft until Ed Fries left in mysterious circumstances).

So congratulations unto them

(and the idea seems pretty cool too...).

Foood?
 

Doesn't odd world make you hungry?
Think about it...
We've had Munch
Grubbs
Steefs
And Fangus...
Steef sounds like beef...
And Fangus sounds like Angus...

Mmmmm.... Angus Beef....

This was the initial reason that I thought this was a joke... it seemed like the writer was making fun of the fact that steef sounds like beef... and they called the character Fangus due to that fact... that might have been a clue if it was fake... a very inside clue... but whatever...
However...
Seeing as how OWI has an odd habit of giving things food related names...
I know two examples and a rather obscure rhyming reference isn't much proof, but It makes the name Fangus seem a little more believable...
Then again I have odd logic...

But I still have my doubts... even if this game is real... the one year release date seems kinda optimistic...

I'm still waiting for games to come out that were announced 2 yrs ago...

However since it sounds like Fangus would use Stranger's engine, the release date does seem a tad more likely...
And I'm gonna stop rambling...
I could keep going back and forth with myself for hours....

I can confirm 2 things:

OWI Production Designer Silvio Aebischer told me, in an exclusive interview I did with him last week: "The stuff we’ve been doing previously is very Oddworld, it has a signature look; kind of quirky, weird, not necessarily beautiful, but they might be cute or likable. Now where the next game is going, it’s evolving definitely into a little harder look, more realistic in a lot of ways actually."

Which fits with the description so far.

Additionally, Lorne Lanning is quoted in the newest Electronic Gaming Monthly that the next Oddworld game is going to be driven by a huge political atmosphere to the game, and will be majorly shocking in the issues that it tackles, and hwo those issues relate to real life.

That also fits with this description; we'll see what comes from the April issue of Game Informer.

"Steef sounds like beef..."

this is off topic but, i always thought it sounded like beef to show how his speacies were hunted down and sluatered while it also sounds like stag and steer because steefs have great horns and many deer- like characteristics.