Bastion now available on Chrome; Square Enix pledges support

Google Chrome is home to a number of games, but they've typically been games we've seen on mobile devices. Once you're done flicking some Angry Birds and battling Plants vs. Zombies, you may want to check out today's biggest Chrome release: Bastion.

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Google Chrome is home to a number of games, but they've typically been games we've seen on mobile devices. Once you're done flicking some Angry Birds and battling Plants vs. Zombies, you may want to check out today's biggest Chrome release: Bastion.

Yes, Supergiant Games' successful PC and Xbox Live Arcade game has been fully ported to Google's Native Client technology. "This really is the full Bastion experience, featuring our highly acclaimed 1080p artwork, musical score, reactive narration, and play experience, all built to run fast and smooth just like our Xbox 360 and PC versions."

"We're very excited to have Bastion now available on Chrome since it makes getting into the game easier than ever before, and opens up the experience to tons of new players," the announcement says.

"Including players using computers other than Windows-based PCs." That means you Mac players can boot up Chrome and start playing Bastion immediately.

The Chrome version of Bastion requires:

  • Processor: 1.7 GHz Dual Core or Greater
  • Memory: 2 GB
  • Hard Disk Space: 1.0 GB
  • Video Card: 512 MB graphics card (shader model 2)

The requirements are quite lax. I played the game on my current-generation MacBook Air without a hitch. It looked and sounded exactly like the XBLA version.

Like the XBLA version, Bastion is available as a free trial. The full release is $14.99. Unfortunately, gamepad controllers are not supported in "this initial release."

If Bastion has whet your appetite for some console gaming via your internet browser, Square Enix also announced support for Chrome. IO Interactive's Mini Ninjas will be the first game from the publisher, with "additional titles from Square Enix’s group-wide lineup are planned to be made available in the browser within the next year."

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    December 9, 2011 6:30 AM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Bastion now available on Chrome; Square Enix pledges support.

    Google Chrome is home to a number of games, but they've typically been games we've seen on mobile devices. Once you're done flicking some Angry Birds and battling Plants vs. Zombies, you may want to check out today's biggest Chrome release: Bastion.

    • reply
      December 9, 2011 7:24 AM

      Doesn't say much about your game if you can put the full experience on a web browser.

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        December 9, 2011 7:24 AM

        Also, Skyrim was the worst game of all time because it was only 6gb.

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          December 9, 2011 9:42 AM

          GIGABYTES DENOTE QUALITY. QUALITY DEMANDS GIGABYTES. THE CIRCLE CANNOT BE BROKEN.

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        December 9, 2011 7:39 AM

        Look at this front pager. Disgusting.

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        December 9, 2011 7:44 AM

        [deleted]

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        December 9, 2011 7:47 AM

        I nominate this for stupidest post of the year.

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        December 9, 2011 7:49 AM

        I need to make some popcorn.

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        December 9, 2011 7:50 AM

        From what I played this year, it'd be my #1 XBLA game.

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        December 9, 2011 7:52 AM

        You are joking right? Bastion is a friggin' amazing game. It's a fully fleshed-out action RPG with a lot of depth, excellent artwork and a long adventure. This isn't some single screen dual-stick shooter... it's one of the best Xbox Live Arcade games around. Unless you ARE joking then... um.. haha.. I guess.

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          December 9, 2011 8:01 AM

          Fuck I need to play more Bastion. I am truly in game overload hell at the moment.

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          December 9, 2011 10:22 AM

          How's the Steam version?

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            December 9, 2011 11:09 AM

            Good question. I haven't seen it yet, but I'd imagine it's exactly the same.

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            December 9, 2011 12:02 PM

            I just finished it on a decent computer, and there were a couple of spots where it halted for a moment before carrying on (not normal lag where it slows down, more like it froze and then continued after half a second), but other than that it was great. Smooth, responsive, and a wonderful game, as you'd expect. No problems using the Steam overlay for checking achievements and the occasional screenshot, though that's all I really put it through. Good support for the 360 pad, too.

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              December 9, 2011 12:04 PM

              And MKB?

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                December 9, 2011 1:15 PM

                I hadn't used it before (figured that an XBLA game would probably control pretty well with gamepad), but I just had a go now, and the MKB controls seem pretty damn good, and better than the 360 pad. Instead of the more relaxed, lock-focused controls of the pad, using the mouse makes it closer to a dual-stick control method, allowing some very handy and precise moves that can't be accomplished with the pad's face buttons being used for attacks. Even with a less precise modification loadout for the Calamity Cannon, I just breezed through its Proving Grounds from my old 3rd place to 1st place on my first go.

                Before that I failed at the last stages of the third Who Knows Where battle, but I think that was more from my loadout and my bone-headed inability to heal when it's necessary. MKB seems pretty great.

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                  December 9, 2011 1:30 PM

                  Thanks, maybe I should get this game then. So it's an isometric RPG?

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                    December 9, 2011 2:24 PM

                    Pretty much, but with more action than that makes it sound. Very fast-paced, with dodging, shield-countering and whatnot. You find 'fragments' currency in the levels mainly to upgrade your weapons. It's a really charming game with its visuals and wonderful soundtrack, and the combat system holds up its end of the deal.

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            December 9, 2011 3:56 PM

            Its alright on steam. Pretty smooth fps and non-choppy sound. Was choppy fps and VERY choppy sound through chrome.

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        December 9, 2011 7:57 AM

        Look at this stupid post!

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        December 9, 2011 8:05 AM

        Ya, Quake Live was totally bogus man. wtf is wrong with you?

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          December 9, 2011 1:31 PM

          quake live doesn't run nearly as well as the native app

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        December 9, 2011 8:31 AM

        It says a lot more about my crappy laptop that I still cant play it.

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        December 9, 2011 8:32 AM

        You enjoy abuse, don't you.

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        December 9, 2011 8:43 AM

        *cough* Quake Live *cough*

        • reply
          December 9, 2011 1:31 PM

          quake live doesn't run nearly as well as the native app

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        December 9, 2011 8:52 AM

        maybe 3 years ago, this would be true

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        December 9, 2011 10:13 AM

        Do you write headlines for Gawker?

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        December 9, 2011 12:35 PM

        okay supergiant employees your game is the most visually impressive masterpiece ever. GOTY!

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        December 9, 2011 12:51 PM

        hahaha! did any of you even try to play this in chrome?? Its like 15 fps and the sound is choppy as fuck. Is this the full experience?? /am vindicated

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        December 9, 2011 3:10 PM

        [deleted]

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      December 9, 2011 7:45 AM

      Looks great, but there was quite a lot of control lag on my 2010 MBP. This is with an external monitor and some stuff running in the background.

      I'll definitely give it a try on my PC tonight.

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        December 9, 2011 10:18 AM

        Just played through the free part on a 27" screen, in full screen! It's really great, but there's still a little control lag. I originally played it on xbla though, so I don't know how it compares to the steam version. Maybe that version has the same lag.

        I tried to buy the full game, but google checkout failed. Poop, I felt like playing through it again :(

    • reply
      December 9, 2011 7:53 AM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      December 9, 2011 8:34 AM

      FREE DLC Announced!! http://www.shacknews.com/chatty?id=27240738#item_27240738

      Free for PC and their new Chrome Version, $1 for Xbox as they explain, they can't give it out for free on XBLive.

      • reply
        December 9, 2011 8:41 AM

        Does this mean there might be a sale for it next week on XBLA?

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      December 9, 2011 9:38 AM

      So does this mean it will run on Chromebooks? I mean I guess it must

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      December 9, 2011 10:03 AM

      looks like going 2d sprite based is paying off. i bet that game is hella easy to port

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      December 9, 2011 10:28 AM

      can sign up for our mini ninjas chrome beta here http://www.minininjas.com/

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      December 9, 2011 10:45 AM

      would be interesting to hear why they chose NaCl over html5/webgl

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        December 9, 2011 11:36 AM

        Because not going with NaCl means you need to use JS, which means two things:
        (1) You need to rewrite your app, because it wasn't written in JS to start with -- or find some tool that will cross-compile to JS, which doesn't really exist for general-purpose C/C++ apps.
        (2) Your app will now run much more slowly because even V8 can't run JS as fast as NaCl can run compiled C code.

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      December 9, 2011 11:00 AM

      this is amazing. I hope this encourages other devs to produce more games of this caliber and do the same thing. Now if this (chrome) could only be tablet compatible, i'd ask google to marry me.

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      December 9, 2011 12:44 PM

      Bastion was written in C#. Does that mean that Bastion for Chrome is running on a NaCl port of Mono?

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        December 9, 2011 1:01 PM

        [deleted]

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        December 9, 2011 3:44 PM

        yes. the Mono port is an official part of NaCl:

        Because NaCl operates at the machine code level, it is language independent. Google supplies a port of gcc for compiling C and C++ code as well as supporting the Mono compiler for managed languages such as C# (and the Mono-based Unity engine). In addition to these options, various developers have contributed ports to support Ruby, Python, Go and more.
        -- http://code.google.com/games/technology-nacl.html

    • reply
      December 9, 2011 3:41 PM

      i think im going to purchase it on Chrome, this is pretty awesome

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