Bedlam, the FPS based on a novel, dated for August

Bedlam

Bedlam is a 2013 novel by Christopher Brookmyre about gamers who end up trapped inside a videogame, which as it turns out is not as much fun as it might seem. It's also an actual video game that hit Steam Early Access last August. Today, developer RedBedlam announced that it will launch this coming August, and with that month rapidly approaching, released a gameplay trailer that I think looks like a lot of fun.

Bedlam is played as Heather "Athena" Quinn, an overworked, underpaid scientist for corporate monolith Neurosphere who volunteers as a test candidate for a new brain scanning technique. But something goes awry, and somehow the scan traps her in the world of Starfire, a violent videogame she spent hours playing as a teenager.

"A shooter for those who survived online gaming in the 80s and 90s, Bedlam takes a look through an iconic time in online gaming and serves up some authentic gaming nostalgia with up-to-date graphics and gaming features," the Early Access page states. "Bedlam is set entirely in the first-person but will explore other game genres from a first-person perspective."

It looks silly, but in a good way, and as someone who 'survived' gaming in that era, I dig the references to Pac Man, Defender, and Space Invaders as much as I do the more modern, Unreal-style stuff.

Bedlam is set to come out on August 13.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.