Archive for March 6th, 2007
Fable 2’s Big Thing: A Pet Dog
I’m sitting in a small room with Peter Molyneux listening to him talk up Fable 2.
There are, he tells me, three big things coming to the sequel to his role-playing game, but he only wants to talk about one of them today: Love.
Love, Molyneux says, comes in three general flavors in the game. There is the appreciation the wide world feels toward your character as he lives and fights in their world. There is the ability to make love and make babies. Yes, you can be both a man or a woman and if you’re a woman, you can get pregnant. A first, he believes, for a main character in an RPG.
But the big thing, one of the biggest parts of Fable 2, will be the introduction of a dog to the game. Not just any dog, but your dog. The dog will be faithful to you and will have a deeply nuanced artificial intelligence so you won’t actually control your dog at all. Instead your dog will act as a sort of living HUD. The game has no map, no other user interface on screen. Instead you will have to rely on the dog and what he sees and does.
You also will control the dog by your own actions. A great example. You come upon two bad guys and pull our your gun (yes, the game has guns) and the dogs knows automatically attack the closer targets.
Molyneux showed us much more about this amazing dog character, but I’ll have to dig into it later in another post. Keep in mind this feature is already 100 percent implemented, meaning it has to be in Fable 2, at least in some sense.
On to Conan.
GDC07 -The GDC Store
Today our GDC meetings and events start in earnest, but yesterday I had plenty of time to wander around and get the lay of the land, including a walk around the official GDC store, located in a small area off to the side of the second floor of the convention center.
Conference stores like this one not only provide valuable items like books, hats, and t-shirts to the conference going public, but they also serve as a way to prove to your loved ones that you actually went to a conference and didn’t simply hang out in San Francisco for a week getting drunk. Hit the jump for more on what’s in store at the…store.
Since early man first stood upright and wanted to make sure everyone knew he was there for it, the t-shirt has been the ultimate way of documenting your presence at a major event. At the GDC store you can get anything from babydoll tees for your girlfriend ($15) to baby jumpers for your actually baby ($16). They even sell some more expensive items, like the swanky GDC soft shell jacket, which goes for $75. Unfortunately they were already out of my size (2X), but the nice lady handling the clothing area had one ordered special for me, to arrive by Friday.
Then of course you have hats, bags, pads of paper and pens, and that sort of stuff. Far more interesting is the book store, where you can get all sorts of books that you’d generally never find in a bookstore. From books that teach you how to create with Maya to extensive studies of gender in the video game industry to arts books featuring some of the most iconic characters in the industry, there is no shortage of viable bathroom reading. If you hurry you can still pick up a copy of Flash Game Programming for Dummies, which I can’t imagine anyone at this conference purchasing without wearing some sort of elaborate disguise.
The store also carries a nice selection of instructional DVDs that no one outside of a game development aficionado has any hope of understanding, plus a selection of hard to find video game soundtracks, including the much sought after Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus soundtrack.
My total for the store so far is $106.95. $75 for the potential of owning a jacket, $15 for a shirt for the girlfriend, and $16.95 for the Myst soundtrack I picked up for my mother, who is the closest thing you’re likely to find to a Myst fangirl. I’ll probably pick up a few books before I head home on Saturday, including Lucky Wander Boy, which has been in my Amazon cart going on a year now.
Just thought I would give you folks a little peek at what game developers and bored reporters spend their money on at the Game Developers Conference when we aren’t busy eating, rubbing elbows, attending meetings, or hiking our sorry butts all over San Francisco in search of appointments that may or may not actually exist.
Gods and Heroes Impressions
Perpetual Entertainment invited me over to their downtown San Francisco studios yesterday for a little hands-on time with their upcoming massively multiplayer online game God and Heroes Rome Rising.
Chris McKibbin, Perpetual’s Co-Chairman & President, said the game is set to hit by the end of this summer and went to great pains to explain how it would be more of an action adventure game than your typical massively multiplayer online game. Some of the other things he highlighted, which he believes sets his game apart from the rash of other MMOs, were the game’s classic, mythologicially-influenced theme, a strategic squad-based combat system and collectible minions that level up with you. Think of them as a sorta Pokemon, it sounds like you will be spending a lot of time in the game running around trying to find and collect these guys and then trading them with other real-world players.
Kinda a neat concept.
The game also has this robust god system which seemed a little too familiar to me. It’s not much different than the overarching thing in other games that make your particular character special, be in that you’re a rookie who shows much potential, a hero or happen to be the son or daughter of a god.
I had a chance to play around with the most recent version of the game for about 20 minutes before I had to run to another appointment.
The character creation was fairly basic, though there were enough sliders in the appearance field to allow you to somewhat tweak the look of your particular son or daughter of a god. You also have to select your class and your god.
I started out in the game with a level two character and ran through a quick mission that seemed to exist in a smallish incident in the game. The other press testing out the game were also here, but my feeling was that it was a small space that could only handle a dozen or so players at a time.
The look of the game, while a bit generic, did have quite a bit of polished ambience, from the classic look of the structures, to far off fights with large creatures.
I particularly liked the character animation for fights. Instead of your typical sword swing, my character seemed to really get into the fight. The two special attacks I had were also quite original looking. One had my character leap up in the air, spin and deliver a downward blow with his sword as he landed. The other involved both sword stabs and punches and actually knocked the enemy to the ground temporarily.
While the animation had a nice flare, it was still the same point and click MMO fighting wrapped up in a nice package.
After taking out a few bad guys, delivering some goods, destroying some statutes, killing more stuff, I found my way back to my original quest giver and was told to make my way down into a pit to kill some guards in hopes of finding a key to escape my location.
The fights with the squat guards showed off some of the nice non-player character animations, including one attack in which the thing knocked me to the ground and jumped up and down on my fallen character for a few seconds. I nice touch.
After killing off a few guards I found the key, made my way through a gate and into another instance, one that the developers said would eventually support perhaps a few hundred real players at a time.
In this instance, a small village on the shore of a lake, I received my first minion, a choice between a fighter, essentially, and a healer.
Once you receive a minion you’re given the ability to assign them to squads and a separate interface pops up which allows you to control their actions or put them in particular modes, like support.
This is where, I think, the game has the most potential. The idea of controlling a small army of your own minions in real time, setting them out across a field to attack another player’s army of minions, could really change the way you play an MMO.
And it doesn’t hurt that one of the guys behind the whole minion system is Stieg Hedlund, the lead designer of Diablo II.
Hedlund said that the idea behind minions is that they are suppose to maximize your character class, not the other way around. They want to make sure that you don’t try to create characters that are essential minion masters, he said.
There are 132 minions in the world and their abilities and uniqueness are directly connected to how hard they are to find and get under contact.
Another thing that I think could really give this game legs are some of the expansions that they’re already talking about doing. They include introducing new cultures and mythologies to the game, which would add to the number of gods and of course inherent conflict.
Also, they plan to add nation versus nation battles to the game down the line and player versus player is where MMOs can really shine, I think.
GDC07 Party Time - Sam and Max
One of the biggest attractions of the Game Developers Conference for both the game companies and the gaming news media would have to be the parties. Despite many of us being misanthropic shut-ins most of the year, there’s just something about the lure of free booze and finger foods that brings out the socialite inside all of us. Take me, for instance. Before starting to write for Kotaku I hadn’t been what anyone could consider drunk for the better part of seven years. Now, thanks to the wonderful people at Telltale Games, I have a terrible headache and woke up on the bathroom floor of our hotel room this morning. I feel like crap, but I don’t blame the creators of the Sam and Max episodic adventure game series. No, I blame ordering ’something blue’, pictured to the right there.
It tasted of pineapple and the spite of an overworked bartender. If anyone knows what exactly this drink is, please be warned that it should be considered armed and dangerous. Do not attempt to subdue it yourself…rather call the authorities to dispose of it from a safe distance.
Telltale threw a pretty cosy little party, which included a peek at the upcoming episode 5 of Sam and Max, Reality 2.0, which looks to be a fine addition to the series’ arsenal of funny. It was in a little bar tucked away in an alleyway, which is exactly the sort of place I would expect Sam and Max to show up at. Unfortunately and much to the disappointment of several people in our group, Sam and Max did not make a personal appearance.
I did actually got to shake the hand of Sam and Max creator Steve Purcell, however. It took me several minutes to realize that, unfortunately, because for some reason I lack the special eardrum bits that allow me to hear what other people are saying in bars, and the last time I had seen a picture of Purcell was, I believe, 1992. Once the realization hit me I walked over to him and rudely interrupted a conversation he was having to basically tell him that this giant drunk man was a big fan. I am sure he was impressed.
The food was a lovely mix of strange finger foods, ranging from sweet nachos of some sort to what I am relatively sure was fried squid, which falls under the ‘things I would only eat while drunk’ food group, tasting like battered deep-sea rubber bands to my sophisticated palate. I am proud to say that between the three Kotaku writers present and the friends we were with we probably consumed a good 25% of the food available.
The night ended relatively young, which was probably a good thing considering the fitful sleep I had afterwards, snoozing first on the bed, then on the floor between the bed and the wall, and then finally on the bathroom floor. I didn’t get sick in the traditional hugging the toilet sort of way, but I am not at all right this morning, and this was just the first day. Join me tomorrow morning for the next round, if I don’t end up passed out in an alley somewhere.
Molyneux, Sakaguchi, FASA
It’s going to be a busy morning.
We’ve got small meetings set up with Lionhead Studio’s Peter Molyneux, Age of Conan’s Funcom, Microsoft Game Studio’s Shane Kim, Blue Dragon’s Hironobu Sakaguchi, Forza’s Turn 10, Shadowrun’s FASA, Mass Effect’s Bioware, the Xbox Live Arcade crew and the people backing the XNA development software.
Tonight will also see a pre-keynote presser with Sony Computer Entertainment of America and some hands on time with a bunch of Electronic Arts game during their evening party.
Night Note: On Banning
To: Crecente
From: Bashcraft
Subject: Ban Hammer
How’s San Fran? Talked to Luke Smith briefly last night. He said he saw ya and McWhertor and Fahey…
So, something I’ve been thinking about. Everyday, between the both of us, we probably ban between four and five commenters. In banning people, you are bound to piss someone off. It’s inevitable. Banning is a necessary evil — It keeps the comments section readable, spam-free and the discussion relatively intelligent. Today, I got an email from a commenter I had banned earlier. An excerpt:
Months ago I was kicked from posting on Kotaku for bad mouthing you and your character.
I just wanted to say sorry for my actions. It was juvenile of me and uncalled for.
Now that I look back it was my character that should have been called into question.
Actually wrote the guy back, thanking him for this. Really appreciated it. Class, pure class.
What you missed while you were drinking sleeping:
- Most American homes are console-free.
- Capcom shipped a ton of Monster Hunter Portable 2nd. Game is a huge PSP hit!
- VF5’s lack of online explained!
- Reggie, where are our Wiis?
SPECIAL BONUS POST
Alice posted this month. She should be good until next!
Okay. Gotta get ready for my trip to Tokyo tomorrow. Gonna be on a podcast, interview someone for a magazine article and hopefully swing by Akihabara. Busy day!
Clips: LotR Online Classes
Two videos, showcasing the classes on offer for the upcoming LotR Online. Looks…well, looks aren’t important for an MMO.
Clip: Unblinking Anime Wii-mote Waving Cuteness
That’s Yuki from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya waving that Wii-mote into eternity. Wonder what she’s playing…
The Simpsons Attempt GTA Funny
Since I live in Japan and don’t have cable, I haven’t seen The Simpsons in like six years. But game blog Aeropause posts that a recent episode of the show features a Grand Theft Auto parody. From the original post:
Last night’s episode of The Simpsons had Bart seeing a psychologist to try and figure out what motivated him to tell a ghost story about a school lunchroom cook that beheaded and made soup from kids many years ago…
Bart initially resists the psychologist, so she feigns disinterest, saying that since she gets paid by the school either way, they might as well play videogames instead. What’s the videogame? Why it’s Death Kill City II: Death Kill Stories. The box art even mimics the style of Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories.
Bart proceeds to gleefully eradicate all of humanity in the videogame and the psychologist takes notes.
Huh, I remember The Simpsons being a lot funnier.
Simpsons GTA Parody [Aeropause]
What’s Selling In Britain This Week?
Well, not this week. Last week. Past tense. Sorry for the confusion.
1. Final Fantasy XII
2. Crackdown
3. The Sims 2: Seasons
4. FIFA 07
5. Sonic and the Secret Rings
6. Pro Evolution Soccer 6
7. Need for Speed: Carbon
8. Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training
9. The Sims 2
10. New Super Mario Bros
FFXII fights off Crackdown for another week at #1. It’s OK, Crackdown. Second comes right after first.
[via MCV]
Microsoft’s sneaky Xbox 360 “update”
Filed under: Culture, Hacks, Microsoft Xbox 360, Online
In an underhanded move — some would say, without honor — Microsoft has covertly patched a security vulnerability in Xbox 360 that allowed hackers to run their own software. Disguised as an “operating system update,” the patch seals off the console’s non-privileged memory areas, which hackers are using to do such depraved things as write “Hello World” and try to run Linux. The update will be included with all games released after February 20 and is available to download via Xbox Live or the Xbox website (burnable onto CD or DVD). You best grab it before the uncontrollable urge to indulge in naughty hackery takes hold.
Next time, Microsoft, tell us what we’re downloading instead of slipping us a patch in an update’s clothing. We’re on to your shenanigans…
[Via Engadget]
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Xbox 360 100 Percent Failure Rate
And the crapped-out Xbox 360 frustrated consumer train continues! This time it’s an employee at Texas-based Tek Republik, a full-service computer shop that also doubles as a gaming center. According to employee Chris_Tom:
Yes, every Xbox 360 I bought at launch is bricked with the 3 red flashing lights. Microsoft despite the widely reported policy of repairing hosed 360s for free that were manufactured in 2005 refuses to do so. That is pathetic. I have 4 hosed Xbox 360s sitting right here. I would gladly fix them if I could get an Xbox 360 motherboard from Foxconn. Believe me I would. Sorry, Microsoft wants to make even more money by forcing you to only be able to repair with them… Apparently only 4% of Xbox 360s have been faulty. My 100% rate must just be a statistical abberation beyond the mean. I doubt it. I’ve had statistics, and no other computer component I have ever owned has had that failure rate… This is a manufacturing failure of epic proportions. Perhaps one of the worst in history. This is right up their with the Atari ET game… I would prefer to just be able to buy a replacement board from Foxconn. Anyway, $140 a Xbox, half the cost of a core system to replace it. What a joke.
Just did a search around the Tek Republik’s site, and they advertising having two Xbox 360s. If this is true, who’s to blame: Microsoft or this dude’s rotten luck?
100 Percent Failure Rate [AMDZone, Thanks Gregg!]
Indie developers dromp the ‘i-bomb’
Filed under: Culture, GDC, Casual
Monday afternoon brought a pack of indie gaming stars out of their dark workspaces and into the spotlight of the Independent Games Summit. Kyle Gabler (Tower of Goo), Jenova Chen (flOw), Jonathan Blow, and several others were on hand to discuss the role innovation plays in independent game development. The overused “i” word has become a cliché in recent years with commercial developers using it to mask the ugly symptoms of sequelitis. But with smaller dev teams and less emphasis on making money, indie developers actually can focus on creating interesting content and stretching the boundaries of gaming conventions.
As Gabler points out, computing power will continue to progress over the next several decades and exceed our ability to use it. Instead of inventing new gimmicks to distract us, games must focus on the one thing that doesn’t change: human emotion. That’s the reason Final Fantasy VII will make you cry (if you’re a wimp), Beyond Good and Evil will make you hate Big Brother, and Tetris will lead to the development of an odd proclivity for stacking objects.
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Red Star Rises From The Dead, Take-Two Responsible
Can’t keep a franchise down. Especially when there’s a movie adaptation in the works.
Red Star, the game based on the average comic which has inspired an upcoming movie, went MIA when Acclaim went down the toilet. It looked pretty average, and still does. Hasn’t stopped Take-Two from nabbing the rights and releasing the game.
It’s being released in Europe on April 6 if you’re still interested, though (sure there’s a Red Star fan or two lurking amongst you). On PS2. In case you forgot.
The Red Star for Europe [Eurogamer]
Okami creator ‘disappointed’ by Twilight Princess
Filed under: Culture, Adventure, RPGs
Okami is deeply beautiful to our eyes, and it’s a superb game. Twilight Princess, we feel, is a deeply brilliant game. But is Link’s most recent adventure also beautiful? Okami’s Director, Hideki Kamiya, was in Tokyo last week to pick up an Entertainment Award (for his work on Okami, natch) at the 10th Media Arts Festival, which is an event held annually by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs. (And that must have felt good, after Capcom’s no-show at the AIAS awards.)
Kamiya was asked how he felt about Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and he explained: “To be frank, I was disappointed when I saw [Twilight Princess'] visuals. I’m a Zelda freak — it’s no overstatement to say that I created Okami because of Zelda. I really wanted [Twilight Princess] to have that regal aura, because Zelda was what we were aspiring to. I wanted it to show me things that were surprising, but…”
So, which game do you find to be more beautiful?
[Thanks, pokemogu]
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Famitsu, In Your Foreign Hands For A Price
For those who want their own copies of Famitsu to clutch and cuddle with, know that Amazon.com will deliver the weekly to your door for US $390 ($7.50/issue). Can’t see the point at picking it up at such a premium. The big stuff all ends up online, anyway. Though, you do miss the magazine’s comic. Not that you’re really missing anything.
Famitsu Order [CAG]
Mizuguchi’s Every Extend Extra Extreme announced for XBLA
Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Action, Online, Puzzle, GDC, Rhythm, Galleries
It was never going to be Rez, and we knew it — not unless Q has surprises for us — but Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s next bound-for-XBLA opus does have sufficient neon-on-black to make us very happy Marketplace campers. Every Extend Extra Extreme, or E4 for short, is a new take on E3 (which Q developed for the PSP last year). The original Every Extend game was developed by Omega for the PC (the freeware version is here).
Described as a “trippy visual journey of self destruction,” E4 will enable you to play with your own tunes — or, according to the peoplespeak of Q’s press release, “wiz ur muzik” — and against others in an online versus mode. If you’re hooked on the PSP version (and if not, do get hooked), you’ll know that the gameplay is all about chain reactions. Pretty chain reactions. But this XBLA version also offers Leaderboards and Achievements to keep the chain junkies flying. When, you ask? “Later this year.”
Gallery: Every Extend Extra Extreme (E4)
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EA Skate Team Think Motion Controls A Bit “Messy”
Jay Balmer, Associate Producer on Skate, has a few niggling doubts over motion-sensing controllers.
…if you’re well behaved with the controls they work great but if you’re jerky or jumping around the signal becomes very messy.
So if we don’t sit completely still they’re useless?
I think they still pay off. I think it’s a great feeling to be using motion controls. It’s just difficult because you don’t always get what you expect.
Perhaps, but then that’s partly the fault of the controller and mostly the fault of the person at the other end.
More and more developers seem to be coming out and publicly whining about motion-sensing, and it feels like they’re just covering their asses. If you can’t get motion-sensing to work, don’t use it. Simple. That goes for both consoles.
Motion control “messy” says EA [CVG]
Monster Hunter Portable 2nd sells a million in Japan
Filed under: Sony PSP, RPGs, Business
It’s not unusual to see million-selling games on the DS (as Tom Jones would have crooned), but Monster Hunter Portable 2nd is the first PSP game to manage that feat inside Japan. The game got off to a great start last week and, according to a press release from Capcom, as of today one million units have been shipped to retail. Whether this is the start of something big in terms of a comeback for the PSP, or just a one-off success story, it still leaves Sony with an awful lot of work to do if it intends the PSP to ever catch up with the DS’ phenomenal performance in Japan. Either way, it’s great news for Capcom!
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Touch Pen. Gold. DS-able.
When Japanese customers won’t buy your 18K gold stylus for the Sharp W-Zero3 smartphone, there’s always the DS Lite. We’ve seen 18K gold touch pen before, but never gold bandwagoning. Retailer Coffret Jewelry actually advertises that its ¥63,000 (US $536) touch pen can be used with the Nintendo DS. Well, of course it can. It is a stylus!
Gold Finger [Coffret Jewelry]
