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Joystiq interviews Bungie's Frank O'Connor: Peter Jackson details
During a late night Microsoft interview session last Friday, we had a few minutes to chat with Bungie's head writer and (handsome) public face, Frank O'Connor. As was the case with our previously mentioned Peter Molyneux interview, we only had four minutes before being shuffled off to the next interviewee. The next interviewee, as it turns out, was Peter Molyneux. We'll let you sort out this blog writing time paradox on your own. For now, it's time to focus on the subject at hand: Pimps at Sea. Oh, and we asked a few questions about Halo as well.First of all, when did you actually start Halo 3's production? Was it almost immediately after Halo 2?Some of it was even before, you know, some of the concepting and design stuff was done before then, but pretty much three years of development.When you were doing Halo 2, was there a time when you were thinking Halo 1, Halo 2 and that was it, or were you always thinking trilogy?We were thinking of a trilogy. I can't say that we felt that during Halo 1 but certainly during Halo 2. That became very apparent that there was more story to tell than could fit into a 10 hour, 11 hour game.The last trilogy you did for Mac was the Marathon games. And Halo 1 you were originally doing for Mac ...There's some symmetry there, yeah.
Fable 2 seafaring nixed, ninjas added?
Whilst chatting with Peter Molyneux during a lightning fast, round robin interview session (8 tables, 8 Xbox luminaries, 4 minutes each: more at X3F), we learned two surprising things about Fable 2. First of all, we have bad news for all the would-be Fable 2 pirates: seafaring has been cut from the game. Molyneux told us that Lionhead had intended to allow players to become ship captains and sail the ocean blue, but eventually made the decision to cut the concept from the game. According to Molyneux, it's part of his job to cut things out of Fable 2 so that what is left -- the combat, for instance -- is really polished. Molyneux did inform us that the game will still contain pirates though, so that should serve as some consolation. As for the (possibly) good news: since we were on the subject of pirates, we cheekily asked Molyneux if Fable 2 will have ninjas. Molyneux responded, "Ninjas? Well, we aren't saying anything about that. It's funny you should ask that question." Why, Peter? Why is it funny that we should ask that question!? Tell us more!So then, for those keeping score on Fable 2:Death -- NoSeafaring -- NoPirates -- YesNinjas -- Mmmm ... could be.
X3F interview: 4 minutes in the dark with Peter Moore
Peter Moore with Rock Band producer, Helen McWilliamsOn the second night of E3, we stepped into a large, dimly lit room filled with tables -- 8 tables to be exact. At each table sat important folk from the ranks of Microsoft. Bungie's Frank O'Connor, Peter Molyneux: there's some big names in this room (we'll have more on them soon). Sitting in front of us is Peter Moore, VP of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division -- i.e. Xbox. On the right hand side of the room is large LED chess clock. We have four minutes. That's it. The clock starts and we ask him the first thing we can think to ask. We've only got four minutes here, so there's no point in being coy about it. How do you like Rock Band? I love Rock Band. I actually, as you may or may not know, I actually went on stage again last night down in west Hollywood, and got up on the stage with the guys and had a good time. Once I can hear the music I can play the game, you know, so I think it's a great game. I love it, I flew to Cambridge, Massachusetts about six months ago, got my first taste of it. Just knew right then we needed to make it part of the briefing, and knew I'm stupid enough to go and put a guitar around my neck and give it a go.
Spotted in E3 Halo 3 demo: gravity hammer
We were lucky enough to snag a second look at Bungie's E3 presentation and, lo and behold, we were treated to a new weapon ... sort of. During the saved film portion of the presentation, we saw a Spartan soldier wielding what was clearly a gravity hammer, similar to the one wielded by Tartarus in Halo 2. While we didn't get to see the gravity hammer in action, we saw a still shot of a Spartan brandishing it and another of a Spartan with it slung over his back. Brian "Ske7ch" Jarrard of Bungie Studios suspiciously pointed the weapon out during a freeze frame and then promptly pointed out that he couldn't talk about it. He did this twice, so we get the feeling it may have been intentional. So, there you have it folks, hammers abound inHalo 3. Now all we need is a clever name for hammer whoring n00bs. Any suggestions? [Image via Halopedia]
Disney acquires Warren Spector's Junction Point Studios
During its E3 press conference, Disney Interactive Studios announced that they had acquired Warren Spector's Junction Point Studios. Spector took the stage to discuss the news. As Spector told it, he jumped at the chance to work with Disney. According to Spector, his original career choices were either to go into video games (good move Warren) or become an imagineer for Disney, as he was inspired by the works of its founder, Walt Disney. Spector even wrote his masters thesis on cartoons, apparently. Pulling Junction Point into the Disney fold is part of Disney's new game initiative, which involves both leveraging well-known franchises and creating new IP. No doubt, Disney expects a name like Warren Spector (creator of games like Deus Ex) to bolster their credibility as a legitimate publisher.
Molyneux: no death in Fable 2, but scars
After sampling the delights of Fable 2 (more on that soon) we had a little chat with Peter Molyneux about death. Specifically, we talked about how death would be treated in Fable 2. Typically, death in video games means loading the previous checkpoint or restarting a given level. According to Molyneux, such will not be the case in Fable 2. Instead, when overpowered and bested by an enemy, players will be left with a permanent reminder of their defeat: a scar.Granted, the scars are cosmetic, but they do affect how NPCs perceive the main character. The idea apparently came to Molyneux after watching Casino Royale, in which James Bond undergoes particularly brutal torture during one scene and finds himself in the arms of a woman during the next. According to Molyneux, "in Hollywood, heroes always win the day." That's all well and good, but what if you don't like the idea of being disfigured?Players will have two choices it seems: don't lose, or pay a hefty fee to keep your attackers from scarring you. Molyneux revealed that testers are willing to lay down hefty sums of gold -- 1000, which is enough to buy a hut -- in order to avoid scarring. So there you have it, you won't die in Fable 2 -- even bosses can't kill you, they just leave deeper scars -- but you'll pay a price (one way or another) for failing in combat.
New-gen Turok releases Feb 5, 2008
Propaganda Games has announced that Turok will debut on February 5, 2008. The announcement was made during Disney Interactive's press conference by Josh Holmes of Propaganda Games. Turok is Propaganda's attempt to reinvigorate the ailing franchise. The game aims to do this by providing players with a variety of gameplay choices and some particularly nasty enemies. Given the absolute glut of first person shooters (and AAA titles in general) being released this holiday season, the decision to release the game in 2008 is probably a wise one.
Steven Van Zandt chairs Rock Band music advisory board
During EA's E3 press conference, Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos announced the formation of the Rock Band music advisory board. The board is to be comprised of music industry experts and will oversee the selection of music that will appear in Rock Band as the game's constantly expanding music selection grows every week. Rigopulos further announced that the advisory board would be chaired by Steven Van Zandt, former guitarist for the E Street Band (and Silvio Dante from The Sopranos). Van Zandt stated to the crowd that is the advisory board's mission to select the best songs from every era of rock n' roll as well as selections from up and coming artists.Of course, there are still a few unanswered questions, the first being how much all this mammoth content will cost. We'd also like to know what other music luminaries have been invited to join the music advisory board. Your guess is as good as ours.
Joystiq hands-on: Assassin's Creed
Fueled solely by caffeine and pure grit, we managed to get some hands-on time with Ubisoft's much anticipated action game, Assassin's Creed at E3. Our session with Ubisoft began with a representative walking us through a sample mission (which, incidentally, is the same one Jade Raymond walked us through last night at the MS press conference) to show us the ropes. Of course, like any good company rep, he also made sure to lay down some readily quotable stats. First of all, the city featured in the demo, Jerusalem, is fifteen times larger than the city featured during last year's E3. Pulling the camera back, we could see that the city was indeed pretty damned big. What's more, our rep informs us that all of it is interactive. You can climb it, throw enemies into it, use it to hide, whatever. Every surface that extends more than 2" from a wall is scalable, and Altair -- AC's protagonist -- will make his hand-holds realistically. In other words, there is no canned climbing animation. Finally, the city is populated with lots of NPCs, some of which can be hostile (guards and mad vagrants), others can be helpful, and the rest are neutral. And of course, they all have dynamic AI and other quotable features. But how does it play?
