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A look back at Hudson and Sega
With the bomb that Iwata dropped back at GDC about Sega and Hudson being onboard with the Revolution's Virtual Console, Game Informer wanted to take a look back at the two companies' past offerings in the video game industry to determine exactly what we can expect to see from them come time the system launches. If anything, it's a nice history lesson for all you young whippersnappers who were born after the 16-bit age of gaming and a tear-inducing bit of nostalgia and hope for the rest of us. Who else wants to see a Bomberman build with online play?
Mr. Katamari not interested in Revolution
For how quirky and unique a game Katamari Damacy is, I find it odd that its creator is not interested in the Revolution at all. When conversing with Gamasutra's sister-publication Game Developer at GDC, Keita Takahashi claimed "So, there's nothing I really want to do with it right now." He went on further to say "I'm not really interested in it. I don't think a controller should have that much influence on the enjoyment of games."Don't you think he's kind of missing the point? Isn't it not so much that the remote influences the game, but more that it adds a whole new dimension to the gameplay? Red Steel isn't a brand new type of game forced to compromise to the remote's characteristics, it takes the unique properties of the remote and aims to mix it with conventional first-person gameplay to create something new. How can you possibly not be interested in that?! Of course, comparisons to Red Steel aren't all that valid since noone has tried it, but you get the point, right?
Brain Age site launches
The website for Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! has launched, and in following with Nintendo's goals for the game, features a lot of different types of people, young and old, having at it with DS in hand and commenting on their own performance. The website also showcases a comprehensive how-to on playing the game, taking the viewer through the motions and undoubtedly causing their mouth to salivate with the wish to taste the succulent delicacies the game will soon have to offer. Do yourself a favor and go check the site out to tide you over these next few days until you can get your hands on your own copy (unless you were one of the lucky in attendance at GDC).[Thanks Josh!]
Phantom Hourglass trailer analysis
Since showing off the latest offering in the Zelda series at GDC, the vast amount of message boards that inhabit this interwebbed world we live in have lit up with posts of painful yearnings for the latest Hyrulian adventure and "Celda is teh gay agian lawls WTFBBQ." In attempting to fill the gap in time up until this year's E3 with something, IGN has posted a frame-by-frame analysis on the Phantom Hourglass trailer. In doing what you've likely already done, they dissect the video and offer up their opinions on what the game's final release build will be like.
EA's snuff film @ GDC
We haven't seen anybody else mention this, so we feel obligated to describe a truly awesome talk given at GDC by the head of EA's LA studio, Neil Young (pictured here, bio here). First, it must be said that Neil Young is charming as all get-out. He's got one of those endearing English accents that automatically adds like 30 IQ points to the bearer of said accent. His stage presence inspires confidence and willing suspension of disbelief. Within moments of his opening remarks, I felt myself wanting to like this guy, whoever he was. His presentation didn't disappoint that expectation. He spoke about "feature IP," a businessey buzzword for the video game features that are unique enough to drive sales of games. Examples of feature IP include EA's "Game Face" technology (first used in Tiger Woods PGA Tour and to see re-use in the upcoming Godfather game as "mob face") and Microsoft's global leaderboards and achievements system (found in Xbox 360 games). Feature IP, as defined by Neil Young, can be leveraged across multiple games and therefore has the power to drive the sales of not just one game or franchise, but a whole raft of games in a publisher's portfolio.
GDC: The PlayStation booth tour
In clearing out the remainder of my GDC photographs, I've assembled this tour of Sony's relatively massive PlayStation booth. Compared to many of the other booths in the San Jose Convention Center, Sony's white PlayStation station was impressive; owing more to style than outright scale (which wasn't much larger than Nintendo's). While impressive, the booths at GDC are lilliputian compared to the marketing monsters at E3. Read on for the shots ...
Lair off-screen trailer looked good at GDC
Stills and screenshots can only do so much to convey how good a game looks. Here's an off-screen video presentation of Lair recorded from GDC, showing off the Factor 5 game in action (or, should we say, motion).You might recognize some of the animation from videos seen elsewhere, but it was nice to catch the newer footage of a dragon wireframe model meticulously rendered with layers of musculature and skin, too.If that's not enough for ya, you can always just listen in to the audio, which features a young lady from Washington asking questions of a developer with the hope of getting hired. Consider this a lesson in networking.[Via GameBrink]
Phil Harrison's media Q&A video from GDC
Can't get enough Phil Harrison in your life? Check out this video from the media Q&A following his GDC keynote for 20 minutes of Phil-y love (and maybe a few furtive glances from Kaz Hirai sitting in the background).We just love how Phil "swerve[d] a couple of the questions" regarding the hard drive and other hardware-related issues, but we also like how he managed to clarify those questions regarding "content offerings" that will be charged at a "premium," though he did say that there were "no plans to charge for [multiplayer gaming] at the moment."But, yeah, Mr. Harrison wasn't as combative in his answers as some media outlets portrayed him, which is another great step for platform executives who tend to make rather grandiose statements and fiery claims. If you want to see as well as hear the Phil handle all comers, this is one of your best chances yet. We'd love to hear it all clearly in English at E3, too.[Thanks, Fan; video courtesy of Jean-Baptiste Su of Citizen Valley]
Warhawk, MotorStorm, & other bootleg GDC PS3 videos
So, are you tired of bootleg stills from the upcoming PS3 titles featured at GDC? (Or bootleg videos from current-gen titles like God of War 2?) Well, it looks like you're in luck, as we've got a few fuzzy PS3 videos from Phil Harrison's speech, courtesy of the embargo-ignorin' folks at Multiplayer.it.What we have above is a clip from the developer demo of Warhawk for the PS3. A voiceover describes the "ambient warfare" to be used in the air-combat simulation game, as well as the innovative mix of "Cell-based software rendering with RSX-based hardware rendering" to produce the graphics. For all you coders out there, it was also interesting to note that the programs running on the Cell's SPUs were not written in low-level assembly (easing development, but possibly degrading performance).While we wait until E3, when a playable version of Warhawk was promised to be delivered, here are a few more PS3 videos from GDC that you might find interesting (with a few unfortunately quite incomplete): Streamed video of MotorStorm GDC footage, also with a voiceover. Streamed speeded-up video clips (no audio) of Warhawk, Getaway 3, Lair, the Havoc physics demo from Heavenly Sword, the bullet-ridden car model demo, and even that video concerning Rachet & Clank. Streamed (basically) audio-only video from Resistance: Fall of Man. [Thanks, Reaktorleak89, Fan, & Da'Cheez; via PS3 Fanboy & QJ.net]See also: MotorStorm, Resistance and more: pictures from Sony's GDC keynote God of War 2 GDC video leaked online Multiplayer.it's report on Phil Harrison's GDC keynote (in Italian)
GDC: the Nintendo booth tour
At last week's GDC, Nintendo's booth commanded a significant percentage of the show floor. As one of the largest booths at the show, Nintendo had plenty of room for the faithful to converge and lust, as a group, over their newest creations. Namely the DS Lite and the Revolution. In the above shot, flanked by two flat panel video screens, was the Revolution. See that glow radiating from below? Yup, that's it. There was a steady stream of curious pilgrims waiting to get a first hand look at it.
HDMI issues at GDC? Or simply no cable?
The PS3 dev kits on display at GDC apparently skipped the HDMI connection for some of their demos, casting doubt on how far along Sony's come with its hardware and digital standards compliance.During GDC, Sony brought along a few PS3 demo units to show off audio and video, which TG Daily spied from a distance. As you can see above, the PS3 graphics demo unit used a standard AV Multi-Out connector while the "two HDMI ports right below the AV Multi-Out port were unused." TGD apparently offered to lend Sony officials an HDMI cable of their own to connect to the system, but they were turned down.Of course, there's also a conflicting pic which Chris Grant took for us on Joystiq Central that seems to show that very HDMI connection being used, probably with another unit. (Scroll down to the second pic here to see it.) So what's the real story? Was Sony lacking enough updated HDMI 1.3 hardware and/or 1.3-compatible TVs to show off the HD goods, or were they simply short on cables? Maybe their budget was a bit tight for GDC (what with Phil's focused keynote and abundance of GDC sessions from Sony), so hopefully we'll see everything hooked up nice and tidy for E3.[Thanks, Michael, Racky, pheen, and DocEvil; via TechSpot and CD Freaks]
Crysis direct-feed GDC trailer: it's hot
Folks expecting a prettier version of Far Cry with CryTek's new Cry Engine 2 can now gape in awe at what's possible with Crysis, the company's next-gen shooter for EA. No more off-screen video recordings for us!If nothing's changed about the FPS gameplay presented, we can look forward to some of the most realistically rendered in-game foliage ever, as well as a buggy boss who will most likely make another appearance at E3. Who wouldn't want to get Lost in that kind of tropical environment?[Thanks, Phil and alvin; smaller HD versions in WMV and QT over here]See also: Crysis for EA: good for Crytek? Behold: CryTek's Crysis Windows Vista delayed until 2007... taking Halo 2 with it? Rumor: game based on TV's Lost this fall for consoles
GDC: Serious Games guys ask, "What's wrong with Serious Games?"
This is a fascinating slide that kicked off the "What's Wrong with Serious Games?" session at last week's GDC. Panelists included Ben Sawyer, Henry Kelly of the Federation of American Scientists, and James Paul Gee, who wrote this book (which is apparently very good). Sawyer began with the sobering statistic that the entire Serious Games initiative lost less money in four years than the ill-fated Gizmondo burned through in its existence. He joked, "We're still a rounding error." Gamasutra has a writeup of the entire session, which offered a frank look at what their goals are, why they haven't been successful, and what they can do to help. Good stuff.
Unreal Engine 3 MIA on Revolution?
Epic Games' Mark Rein, in a Q & A session attended by Joystiq Blogger Christopher Grant during the recent GDC, said that we probably "won't be seeing Unreal Engine 3 on the Revolution." Mark implied that the Unreal Engine 2 would be more than sufficient for anything the platform may demand and had yet to be informed on what the final specs for the console would be. Mark's comments were more towards down-scaling HD projects, such as the upcoming Gears of War, for the console and cited that it would not be very cost effective. We assume that titles will eventually utilize the Unreal Engine 3 on the console, however upcoming titles created specifically with HD resolutions in mind are more than likely not going to see an incarnation on Nintendo's system.
Heard@GDC: no Unreal Engine 3 on Revolution
During a Q&A session following a demonstration of their new Unreal Engine 3, Epic Games' Mark Rein said, "It won't be easy to take something HD res here to the Revolution," continuing we probably "won't be seeing Unreal Engine 3 on the Revolution." Although he was clear to say that he has not seen the final hardware for the Revolution, Rein said the existing Unreal Engine 2 would provide more than enough muscle to take full advantage of the Revolution's hardware since it won't require HD resolution. Naturally, nothing's been announced, so despite the fact this came from Epic's VP, consider it unconfirmed. Any geeks in the house care to pontificate on whether or not UE3 is in fact worth it for Revolution developers?See also:Revolution can handle Unreal Engine 3Mark Rein to consider Unreal Engine 3 for RevolutionNintendo responds to Epic's Revolution disdainEpic VP rips on Revolution concept(UPDATE: To prevent further confusion, I'll attempt to clarify what I think Mr. Rein was saying. The process of porting UE3 games running in HD from platforms like PC, Xbox 360, or PS3 to the Revolution "won't be easy" and therefore, he suspects, won't be done. He elaborated that licensing Unreal Engine 3 for a Revolution game would probably be overkill, since Unreal Engine 2 is already capable of maxing out what they perceive the system to be capable of. That being said, what about the streamlined scripting and animation tools bundled into Unreal Engine 3's Kismet? Wouldn't some developers gladly pay the increased licensing fees to work in a refined development environment that, according to Epic, could cut their development costs. Furthermore, some developers, like Midway, have purchased studio-wide licenses to develop all their next-gen titles with UE3, presumably their Revolution titles as well.I think mocax got it right, "Epic's writes software graphics/game engines. Nintendo makes a machine that allows developers to deviate from Epic's core business. Any self-respecting profit-oriented corporation will twitch at Nintendo's disruption." I suspect we will see UE3 on some Revolution titles, but the idea is antithetical to Nintendo's stated ideology and thereby threatening to a company that makes their money selling eye candy.
Seen@GDC: the Novint Falcon haptic interface device
Some of you may remember seeing the Novint Falcon before. The Falcon is a 3D controller that uses "haptic" technology to replicate the sense of touch. While the device itself appears a bit unwieldily, the fluidity of the control it provided was remarkably subtle and realistic. Roll your cursor over a ball, and the controller pushes back just the right amount, giving you the tactile sensation that you're actually touching it. If the ball is pitted, the controller dips in and out of the contours. If it's abrasive, it moves slower with just the slightest amount of rumble. Other demos included a Barney-shooting FPS, a bow and arrow simulation, a tethered bouncy ball, and a basketball freethrow. Like the Revmote, the Falcon is being shown with tech demos designed to accentuate its strengths, but how will actual games work with the controller? Novint told me that they have developed their own API that game designers can incorporate into their titles, but it was unclear if the controller would work with existing games. They said it should be out in 2007 for less than $100. For some more info, check out Firing Squad's GDC interview with the guys at Novint.[Pictured above: MTV News' Stephen Totilo gropes the Falcon]
Epic shows off Unreal Engine 3 at GDC
Epic Games, creators of the gib-tastic pixel-pr0n Unreal Tournament series were showing off the latest version of the tech behind their games at GDC: Unreal Engine 3. So, we all know it's pretty. How pretty? Super duper pretty. It'll make you give up religion and find faith in fragfests, it's so pretty. Beyond it being pretty, what else was there to show off? Epic showed off Kismet, an advanced scripting system that allowed them to create gameplay elements in a graphical UI that strongly resembled a flowchart. It's this middleware system that they claim will prevent the budgets of next-gen projects using their engine from jumping 200-300%, instead citing a more reasonable 50%.The ability to simplify many of the core game design elements will theoretically result in increased creativity; it'll be amazing to see what the mod community turns out using these tools. They showed off the system running on both a high end Dell Renegade and a PS3 dev kit, both of which elicited many oohs and aahs, despite the fact the PS3 version wasn't running on all of the system's SPUs and contained some textures from Unreal Tournament 2004. For a more in-depth look at the demonstrations, check out Gamespot and GamesIndustry.biz.Read - Epic shows off Unreal tools [Gamespot]Read - Getting Unreal with Epic's Mark Rein [GamesIndustry.biz]
Seen@GDC: PlayStation 3 dev kit
This admittedly blurry shot of what looks sort of like an Apple Xserve on steroids is in fact a PlayStation 3 dev kit spotted at Sony's booth on the GDC expo floor. The question is, why show off the humble dev unit under an enticing Revolution-esque plexiglass lid? You'd think they'd have kept it hidden, lest some brain dead superfan mistakes this for a system redesign.Continue reading for some more shots and Sony's clever solution for preventing confusion.
Battlestar producer astounded by GDC
"Startling," "eye-opening," "impressed"--all phrases candidly thrown out by Battlestar Galactica producer Ron Moore as he blogged about his experience at the Game Developers Conference this year. Moore, on hand to give a talk on properly adapting an IP to video game (a write-up can be found here, courtesy of Next Generation), notes that he is a former gamer from the "Classic Atari era," who has since lost that lovin' feeling. His time at the GDC was uplifting, it seems--Moore praises the industry for its restlessness and skepticism, whose leaders "were eager to move on, to find the next great idea and push the boundaries of the business to the next level." Moore was impressed by the conversations he heard, although it is unclear whether he was impressed by the creativity or the sheer amount of technological lingo that flew over his head.There are dozens of choice quotes that Moore gives extolling the games industry and business, and we hope his words are sincere, and not reciprocation for all the adoring Galactica fans in attendance. It is always refreshing for an outsider to look in and give his or her take on the state of affairs.[Thanks, LaughingMan]
God of War's Jaffe inspired by Britney vs. Christina
Sure you knew that God of War was inspired by Clash of the Titans and Raiders of the Lost Ark, but did you know that Christina Aguilera influenced its development as well?In an interview conducted by Lorne Lanning for a session at GDC last week, David Jaffe revealed that thinking of (the workplace tension between him and) his lead programmer during a Christina Aguilera song about Britney Spears helped him get the game to work.So identifying with the arguably lesser end of the Christina-Britney rivalry helped Kratos make it out of development hell? Sounds like a surefire way to create a hit game! We also take it then that the song in question wasn't "Genie in a Bottle," 'cause that would've made for one interesting unlockable costume for our marked man. Cameo in the sequel, perhaps?[Britney 'n' Christina pic found via an old BBC MTV VMA story found here]See also: David Jaffe, blogger extraordinaire, WRU?!? God of War 2 GDC video leaked online Budget power from the Gods, under the hood
