I'm fairly certain I'm about to have an aneurysm brought about by sheer unadulterated joy.

Those clever chaps over at Eurogamer have managed to get the scoop that Dave Gibbons and Charles Cecil are set to reunite to produce a brand new adventure game.  Point and click adventure fans everywhere rejoice!!!

Wait, what do you mean you don't know who Dave Gibbons or Charles Cecil are?

Well let me enlighten you!

Dave Gibbons is the phenomenol comic book artist who co-created the Watchmen graphic novel/comic mini series.  Charles Cecil is the co-founder of Revolution Software and is responsible for the highly successful Broken Sword series of adventure games. So why is it significant that these two men are coming together to produce a game?  Well because these guys have form together; not only did Dave help out on the art style 2009's Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars game but he was also a major contributor to the art and style of Revolution Software's second published game; the cult classic Beneath a Steel Sky.

Beneath a Steel Sky was one of those gaming classic from the time before PCs; a time of Amigas and (if you were unlucky like me) Atari STs.  More importantly, BaSS was fucking fantastic!  I can't find any other way to describe, it was just a great game with a fantastic setting and a very rich art style.  Of course because it was developed by a British company and published by a British company (Virgin Interactive), and primarily drawn by a British artist (Dave Gibbons of course) you might imagine that it has a very quirky British style... and you'd be absolutely right!

BaSS was a massive hit, winning a Golden Joystick Award for Best Adventure in 1995, winning the Best Dialogue Award from PC Gamer and romping home with a massive 95% score from CU Amiga, 94% from Amiga Format and an impressive 86% from Amiga Power magazines (if you ever read Amiga Power you would know that 86% was a very impressive mark from them, they had the strictest review scoring policy of any magazine before or since).  It is still a massively popular game that is readily available at either Good Old Games or the ScummVM Project.

Like the Baldur's Gate games, Beneath a Steel Sky is one of those games that defined a period of many gamers' lives, that awkward moment as the young gaming community shifted from ZX Spectrum and C64s to the all embracing PCs.  Amigas were the pit stop and BaSS was one of the many much appreciated amenities.  I would hazard that if you ask any older gamer who had an Amiga they will happily answer that they owned, or had at least borrowed, played and completed this game and would hold it in the same regard as the Secret of Monkey Island games.  It defined a generation through quirky humour, clever story telling and engaging dialogue.

So with the very obvious pedigree of these two individuals established and a (happy and nostalgic) view of the past triumphs they managed to achieve together, you can see why I am just a little bit excited to hear that they're gearing up for another stab at the adventure genre.