Britton Peele

Stories By Britton Peele

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  Gaming

  Gaming By Britton Peele

  Deconstructing Spelunky: Teaching the next (next) generation of game devs

  Creating a video game can be an incredibly daunting task, but with the recent rise in independent development, garage-based game creation is more accessible than ever. The tools are out there to help you create a game no matter your skill level. But how do you learn the tools, especially if you're too young for a college class? For that, there's Gamebot School. Founded by former developers at Neversoft, one of the many teams behind the Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero franchises, Gamebot School exists to teach the next generation of developers the ins and outs of video game creation. Alan Flores, Allen Freese and Nolan Nelson are using years of game development experience to educate groups of young makers who are full of excitement and creativity. While the "core age" of their students is around ages 9 to 12, they've taught a variety of kids both younger and older. After all, they're offering a service that isn't easily found elsewhere.

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  Gaming

  Gaming By Britton Peele

  Families who game together stay together

  My dad enjoys hunting, fishing and fighting fires. I enjoy reading, philosophy and not exerting myself too much. But while we might not have a ton in common, we do play a lot of games together. Military shooters, mostly, as he gets easily bored by many of the slower moving, story heavy games I tend to play alone. I was never going to follow in his footsteps at the fire department, and he was never going to read Kant with me. So instead, we've bonded on virtual battlefields. That's not something unique to my family. Like my own father, Steven struggles to find things in common with his children. One of his daughters is a dancer. The other is in band. But as the girls have gotten older, playing video games has brought the family closer together. "I've been an avid gamer since I was in college, and my daughters just started picking it up," he told me. "About six or seven years ago I got my oldest daughter a computer, and she and I started playing games with each other and against each other, and it just kind of progressed from there."

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  Entertainment

  Entertainment By Britton Peele

  Looking into the world of Carmack's Doom through the Oculus Rift

  "When people have sort of hacked together first-person demos with head mounts before, they usually have to wind up pretending they're a mouse, which gives you this very limited interface," master of the Doom franchise John Carmack told me in a meeting during QuakeCon 2012. "It's like using it as a controller rather than really looking into the world."Carmack would like to fix that, and he is now working with Palmer Luckey and the highly talked about Oculus Rift in order to do so. By combining Luckey's hardware with Carmack's software, they hope to remove a lot of barriers gamers typically experience when trying to immerse themselves in a virtual world.When I put on the VR headset to look into the new and improved world of Doom 3 BFG Edition, I almost lost balance. My brain seemed to be fighting with itself in terms of where my body was, physically. I knew I was standing in a hotel room of the Hilton Anatole and that moving my feet wouldn't have any impact on my gameplay, while at the same time I felt like I was running through corridors on Mars, dodging fireballs from imps as I played Doom.%Gallery-161678%

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  Entertainment

  Entertainment By Britton Peele

  Unleashing ludicrous gibs in the Rise of the Triad revival

  By the late 90s, Apogee Software – the legal name of 3D Realms – was a household name for hardcore PC gamers. The Texas-based studio was responsible for franchises like Duke Nukem and published some of id Software's earliest hits such as Wolfenstein 3D.Years later that partnership continues as Apogee made its return to id's annual QuakeCon event in Dallas to announce the revival of Rise of the Triad – a cult-favorite first-person shooter released in 1995. Though its popularity never reached the same level as Doom, Rise of the Triad gained a niche fan base for its over-the-top nature. It's the kind of game that has a character named I.P. Freely; the kind of game with a gun that shoots a literal wall of flame, because why not?Rise of the Triad's return is being developed by people with at least a little experience in modernizing old Apogee products. Developer Interceptor Entertainment was formed in 2010 to create Duke Nukem 3D: Reloaded, a fan project turned official remake that was put on hold indefinitely in late 2011. Apogee decided Interceptor could be trusted with another of its franchises and supported the development team by adding former Rise of the Triad devs and mod makers to Interceptor's squad.%Gallery-161630%

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  Sports

  Sports By Britton Peele

  Dishonored's chaos, morality and potentially over-powered hero

  Many elements of Dishonored – from its original setting and art style to the protagonist's arsenal of special powers – have made the game subject to a great deal of attention. But with great power comes a great fear: Will the game lack any sort of challenge? Where is the difficulty in being stealthy if you can teleport behind guards and stop time in order to get away?"It was a hard paradox for us to get right in the game design," co-creative director Raphael Colantonio told Joystiq during QuakeCon 2012, "because we wanted to give you very strong powers, to make you really a badass, but at the same time we didn't want the game to be too easy. So it took awhile to get it right, and some of it is just obvious tuning. Every power has a duration, cost of mana, and some other tunable properties ... So even if your power is incredibly strong, you can mitigate it by saying 'Well, it only lasts three seconds.'"Ricardo Bare, one of the leads behind Dishonored, echoed that sentiment. "We're always in a discussion about where the line is. Should we move it back a little bit toward constraining the player, or should we go ahead and let the player do this? And as much as possible we try to say 'yes' to the player and enable the cool combinations and powers that they put together."

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  Entertainment

  Entertainment By Britton Peele

  A game of murder in Arkane's Dishonored

  What I learned from playing Arkane Studios' anxiously awaited Dishonored is that playing it like a standard action game isn't the best course of action. You may succeed, but you're more likely to fail or stumble disappointingly to the end of a mission – a far cry from those playing with patience and a plan.The QuakeCon 2012 demo I played was from about halfway through Dishonored's campaign, a section taking place during a dinner party murder mystery. You are the murderer, tasked with assassinating a woman named Lady Boyle during a masquerade party taking place at her estate.The catch is that there are three women who go by the name "Lady Boyle," and you're not sure which one is your target. All are masked and wearing different colored dresses. Which Lady Boyle you are sent to kill is randomized every time you play, so unless you plan on killing all three women, you're going to have to do some detective work.%Gallery-161677%

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  Gaming

  Gaming By Britton Peele

  Rise of the Triad's return will cost $14.99; free DLC planned

  The return of the PC classic Rise of the Triad from developer Interceptor Entertainment will be sold digitally for $14.99 and offer all post-launch DLC for free, the dev announced during QuakeCon 2012.Marketing director Dave Oshry told Joystiq the priority was being faithful to the original Rise of the Triad in the core game, with add-on content allowing the Interceptor team to go crazy once the remake is finished.Oshry says that co-op has been one of the most requested additions players at QuakeCon have asked for, so it's now on the minds of the developers as something to pursue in the future. Even weapons came up as a possible addition – such as shotguns, which were not featured in the 1994 original – but part of their inclusion would depend on player interest. As far as Interceptor is concerned, the sky is the limit, and the developer plans to support the game well after launch.As if running down a checklist of oft-requested features from PC players, the game will also be DRM-free, completely moddable, run at 60 frames per second and have plenty of adjustable settings to let the game run on older hardware.An exact release date has yet to be revealed; however, during a QuakeCon panel, the developer promised it would arrive "late this year or early next year ... at the latest, early 2013."%Gallery-161630%

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  Entertainment

  Entertainment By Britton Peele

  Get your nostalgia to Mars in Doom 3 BFG Edition

  It has been a long time since I last visited the imperiled Mars research facility featured in id Software's 2004 shooter, Doom 3, but playing the upcoming HD revamp, Doom 3 BFG Edition, I felt like I hardly ever left.While not as highly regarded as its predecessors, Doom 3 was an enjoyable (and, at the time, graphically impressive) game that garnered a fair following. For fans, Doom 3 BFG is a package filled with memories of the franchise. Along with Doom 3, its expansions, and brand new 'Lost' missions, the BFG pack includes both Doom and Doom 2.Doom 3 BFG itself is not meant to be the original Doom 3 experience with prettier textures and 3D support. "We made some slight improvements to the original game," id creative director Tim Willits told me after I got my hands on Doom 3 BFG's 'Lost Mission' content. "Like the flashlight [which can be used in conjunction with your gun, unlike the original]. We made things a little bit brighter, we improved a lot of the character textures."BFG features tweaks throughout: slightly increased player speed, adjusted ammo and health, new soundscapes, and new auto-save and checkpoint features. "It plays better, it really does," Willits promises.%Gallery-161678%

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  Reviews

  Reviews By Britton Peele

  The Splatters review: Slip, slide, splat

  Physics-based puzzle games can be a little hit-or-miss – sometimes literally. While the element of unpredictability can be addictive in games about knocking down structures with furious birds, it can also lead the way to frustrating trial and error when the physics refuse to cooperate. The Splatters on Xbox Live Arcade hits more than it misses, but it has a few issues that keep it from splashing onto the walls of the physics puzzle hall of fame.%Gallery-130386%

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  Gaming

  Gaming By Britton Peele

  Aliens: Colonial Marines multiplayer, or 'How Gearbox played as Xenomorphs and dissected its guests'

  At a recent preview event for Aliens: Colonial Marines, developer Gearbox didn't let us play through the single-player portion of its upcoming shooter, but gave us a shot at commanding our own marine in multiplayer. Playing Team Deathmatch, journalists took the reigns as marines, while a group of Gearbox employees faced off against as us the frightening Xenomorphs.If you're familiar with team deathmatch from other shooters, Aliens: Colonial Marines will do little to surprise you. The multiplayer is asymmetrical, meaning the two sides of the conflict are pretty different in terms of abilities and play styles. While we didn't get to play as the aliens, we did get to watch them be played, which showed us that there is a least a little here that makes this different from your everyday red vs. blue combat situation.%Gallery-152244%

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  Gaming

  Gaming By Britton Peele

  The acid-blooded devil is in the details for Aliens: Colonial Marines

  "You can see this pocket on the pants," Brian Burleson, senior producer of Aliens: Colonial Marines says as he points to a promotional image behind him. It shows one of the Colonial Marines standing over a Xenomorph while another alien leaps at him from behind. "When we released this [image], someone said to us, 'No, the pocket is on the front of the cargo pants.' And we were like, 'Seriously?'"That's where a lot of developers might stop caring. It's a licensed product that serious fans will probably snatch up anyway, right? How important is a pocket on a pair of cargo pants? But Gearbox Software said "We're going back in and fixing that."The stakes are pretty high with Colonial Marines, and not just because the series has had passionate fans for decades. This isn't an inconsequential "what if" side-story like the Aliens vs Predator games, nor is it a retelling of any of the films in the franchise. It's an entirely new, canonical entry in the Alien mythology – a true, official sequel to Aliens and Alien 3 -- and the developers are taking that opportunity and running with it.%Gallery-152244%

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  Nintendo

  Nintendo By Britton Peele

  Gearbox boss says impressive Wii U 'a really nice bridge' to the next generation

  Nintendo's Wii U demo reel at E3 last year contained a clip of Aliens: Colonial Marines, but we haven't heard much about the version since then. Speaking with Gearbox President Randy Pitchford, we tried to surgically extract a viable specimen of information out of him, but he refrained from getting too specific."Nintendo still has a lot to announce with their platform, and it's not up to us to go ahead of them," he told Joystiq. "I think it's a great platform and I'm really excited about it, particularly with this game, there's a lot of exciting opportunities like, 'Wow, my motion tracker is there, and I can move it like this!'" he said as he moved his arms side to side. "There's just so much cool stuff."%Gallery-152244%

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  Gaming

  Gaming By Britton Peele

  Gearbox: Aliens Colonial Marines was announced before development started

  Despite first being announced by publisher Sega in 2006, development on Aliens: Colonial Marines didn't begin at Gearbox until after the title was revealed to the world."Everyone was just so excited that the deal got done," Gearbox President Randy Pitchford told Joystiq at a recent event for the title. "20th Century Fox, Gearbox and Sega all had to agree to do this and commit themselves to it. The fact that that deal even existed -- everyone on the business side was so excited that the deal happened that they just wanted to tell the world. So before we even started on the game they announced the deal."Because the announcement was made so long ago, many gamers feel the game has been taking an exceptionally long time to come out. "I think there have been a couple of things that have kind of created that feeling. One thing is that it was announced before we were even started. Another thing is that there was an [Alien] RPG game in development by Obsidian which was canceled. And I think when that happened we hadn't even really shown this game or talked about it yet, so that created some confusion of, 'Wait, what was canceled?'"%Gallery-152245%

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  Reviews

  Reviews By Britton Peele

  Shank 2 review: Refined brutality

  Evidence would suggest that the developers at Klei got together in a board room and said, "Shank was really good. We should do another game exactly like it, only a little bit better." And wouldn't you know it, that's exactly what they did. Shank 2 could be mistaken for its predecessor at first glance, with similar 2D visuals and fast-paced violence. But look a little deeper and you'll find a little more meat, a little more nuance and, somehow, even more brutality. %Gallery-146793%

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