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The Hard-Hitting Questions
In game journalism it’s a war zone. Relentlessness, determination, getting all mucky in the mire of underbellies, yep that’s what’s needed in the trenches of gaming. That’s why when it came to interrogating Mike and Robert under the fluorescent lights of PAX 2009, I asked the important questions. Questions about “paint” and “line” and articles like “the”.
Yes, people, nearly two years later Paint the Line has been announced!
Hands-on with Dream.Build.Play
Sometimes technology lets us down. I’m not talking about red rings, yellow lights or even the great white unicorn of failure sightings: a busted Wii. No, this time it’s my recording of my time at the XNA booth at PAX. After spending one great big jam-packed hour with the reps, six games and one of the game finalist developers, the whole thing is lost to the tech ether. My time there, however, was way too much fun to not relive, even if it lacks the punch of quotes and footage. Indie games just rock too hard to be confined by such things. The Dream.Build.Play Challenge is for independent and hobbyist devs, and gamers dreaming of bring a game to life. Using XNA Game Studio they create a game for the chance at a piece of the $75,000 cash prize and having their game published on XBLA. This year’s competition saw over 350 entries spanning over 100 countries, and I can hardly imagine the depth of quality in that submission pool after seeing what the finalists delivered.
Funcom’s Craig Morrison on Rise of the Godslayer and why Conan is worth your time
Craig Morrison talks Rise of the Godslayer, Conan changes and ratings boards.
Rise of the Godslayer does not introduce a new level cap. Morrison explains the reasoning behind this decision, and what players get in exchange:
Morrison: In some ways we wanted to make sure that we could bridge the gap much more seamlessly, because one the eternal struggles of an MMO expansion is when you raise the level cap you make everything obsolete before. What we wanted to avoid was the players playing for one day and being instantly more powerful than they were the day before … I think Everquest have gotten better at it they used to do it in the old days, World of Warcraft certainly when you get an expansion you’re instantly more powerful, and we wanted to try and bridge that and not make it as dramatic. We wanted it so that the players could go back and still experience some of the older content but with their newfound powers so it’s more gradual and it’s adding more diversity to the classes … It is definitely a different approach but we felt it gives the players more options to control their own way of development and we wanted to add more character development options that the player had control over so that they could choose their own path because these feat trees are as large as the ones that exist in the game and they’re completely on top. So were not just reworking and adding a couple more to existing feat trees, we’re actually adding a whole other layer, equally as big, on top so that there’s going to be a lot of these abilities that players will be able to go through and get. (more…)
Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer Preview
While at PAX I got a second chance to visit the most ill-conceived meeting booth of all time – you know, the one next to the Harmonix booth. This time Funcom’s Craig Morrison, Executive Producer, soldiered on to tell me about the Age of Conan expansion, Rise of the Godslayer. Godslayer is set in Khitai, a Far East location from the imagination of Robert E. Howard, though Howard didn’t leave much to go on. The Tower of the Elephant survives as a very memorable tale, however, and so the framework for Godslayer was born. The story goes that the young, thieving Conan went in search of the Elepahnt’s Heart, a fabled gem kept in an ivory tower. He discovers not a gem but an alien, Yag-Kosha, controlled and bound by a sorcerer. Imprisoned for several hundred years, Yag-Kosha has been worshipped in the jungles of Khitai as a protective and beneficial deity but the creature is suffering and begs Conan to put it out of its misery. When Conan (rather uncharacteristically) obliges Khitai spirals into chaos and he earns the hatred of the residents of Khitai and the shiny new title of Godslayer. Basically, lots of people are very cheesed off at King Conan. (more…)
Hands-on with Fairytale Fights
Fairytales, the cleverly disguised horror stories that kept kids of yore in line is the stuff Fairytale Fights makes comedic fodder of. In a land of fairy stories gone awry, the game emulates the Adult Swim side of things with a saccharine paint job over some Naked Emperor carnage. At first reluctant to view Fairytale Fights as more than a game caught in the wake of Fat Princess fervor, it didn’t take much gameplay to convince me that the cheeky title carves out its own turf. (more…)
Hands-on with Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
In the Sony room at PAX, a man tries to introduce himself to me. That man is Brian Allgeier, and it’s all I can do to keep from stuttering as I less than gracefully blurt out “I know who you are.” I love Ratchet and Clank, more than most games, so I was practically shaking with geek excitement that not only was I playing Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time, I was playing it with Brian Allgeier. Actually, the whole thing still makes me geek out. For my fellow fans, I really want to keep this spoiler-free so I will address plot points only in the broadest of terms and instead focus on the game’s other elements. (more…)
Interview with Brian Allgeier: Ratchet’s Future after R&C Future
In the midst of some serious Ratchet and Clank Future gameplay I managed to ask Brian Allgeier a few questions about Crack in Time and the future of the Ratchet series.
There’s been a lot of talk that this is the best Ratchet game yet, and even a culmination for the Ratchet series.
Brian: For us we’re definitely wrapping up a chapter of the Ratchet and Clank games. We started our story arc in tools of Destruction and now we’re answering a lot of fan questions here. This is kind of, for us, more of a love letter to the franchise. It’s a chance to really delve into the space exploration aspect of it, like with the spherical worlds, and then we’re focusing more on Clank and his origins and Ratchet and his origins, too. It’s been quite a journey. This is a great game to wrap a lot of things up and give the players a sense of closure. (more…)
Hands-On at PAX with Sony’s Digital Comic Reader
Unveiled at Gamescom just over a month ago, I got a chance at PAX to try out Sony’s Digital Comic Reader for the PSP and PSPgo. The DCR allows users to purchase and download comics from the PlayStation Store and read them on their handheld. Since I’m not much of a fan of reading anything in digital format (yeah, I know) and way too nostalgic about the whole holding a book/mange/comic in your grubby little hands experience, I was skeptically interested in how exactly Sony could make this a pleasant experience. Spoiler: they managed it, and I want it now.
Hands-On at PAX with Split/Second
At PAX Disney Interactive provided gamers with the opportunity to play through a 360 demo of Split/Second. Lasting fifteen minutes or so my time was brief – but when there’s a line of eager gamers behind you it’s best to hit it and quit it. An arcade racer sharing plenty of commonality with Burnout, the daredevil Split/Second should still manage to carve out a niche for itself in 2010. (more…)
Hands-On at PAX with EyePet
The EyePet, the latest game to make use of the PlayStation Eye, is a virtual pet that puts the Tamigotchi days of digital pets to shame. Targeted to the younger set, there’s no avoiding the draw of the little guy, even as an adult-shaped person. Sony’s Alex Armour was kind enough to take EyePet through his paces in a 1-on-1 presentation at PAX. Prior to PAX, I had no doubt that in concept and polished trailer EyePet is very promising; what I came away from the hands-on experience with is the realization that everything EyePet promises, it delivers.
Me and Chief
Was going to save this for my “weekend at PAX” write-up, but, you know…impatience wins out sometimes.
MC and Me
To Master Chief, wherever you are: you are very tall, good sir!
Torchlight: Hands-On at PAX
Just over a year ago Mythos and its company, Flagship Studios, “crashed and burned in spectacular style”, a demise thus described by co-founder Max Schaefer. Mythos, the second game from the start-up, was lost to South Korean Hanbitsoft and Schaefer, having left Blizzard, Diablo and now Mythos behind, ventured onward with a dozen or so teammates to form Runic Games. One relatively short development cycle later and they are bringing Torchlight to fruition, geared up for an October 27th release of the single-player campaign. Like Diablo with a more playful cartoon flavor and a bit more humor it’s the game’s undeniable personality that makes it so engaging. Torchlight is just a world you want to be part of. Fans of action-RPGs will feel at home here, fans of Diablo even more so, with a familiar control scheme even a relative PC noob like me can latch onto, deftly navigating and firing off spells. (more…)
Nerd Flu
It’s true, I brought home the best souvenir of all from PAX 2009: piggy flu. Oink. While I managed to keep a steady pace going through the early part of this week transcribing interviews and writing about secret societies, it seems that while I could perform those actions sitting down it did not qualify as “rest” – because now I’m sicker than I was four days ago.
So I’m going to go rest. For real. Granted, this may mean you have to wait an extra day to hear about playing Ratchet and Clank with Brian Allgeier, or the media Q&A with Gabe and Tycho’s paternity leave stand-in Robert, but at least now when my Mom calls again I can tell her I’ve been resting. Honestly.
Interview with Telltale’s Mark Darin
Big thanks to Mark Darin and the guys at the Telltale Booth for chatting with me – in the midst of a massive autograph session! If you haven’t begun the Monkey Island episodes yet, or haven’t finished Episode 2, be warned that there are some mild spoilers.
Interview with Cryptic’s Matt Highison
Matt Highison, Lead Character Artist at Cryptic Studios was kind enough to meet with me at the PAX 2009 Atari booth. We chat about Star Trek Online, from Gorns to ship customization, and touch on bringing Champions to the 360. (more…)
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