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Interviews with "Art of Xbox 360" artists
Bytesector has posted interviews with two artists whose work appeared in the "Art of Xbox 360" event held at the Blue Dot Gallery in Toronto last month. The show featured pre-production artwork and screenshots from Microsoft-published 360 titles Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo, and Project Gotham Racing 3. Bytesector spoke with Chris Davie, a modeler Bizarre Creations' PGR3, and Wil Overton, the Lead Art Director on Rare's Perfect Dark Zero. The interviews present an interesting point of view from artists, who're often unsung members of the development cycle. Read - Chris Davie interviewRead - Wil Overton interview
Status Symbols
I have recently come to the conclusion that I would really like a Winterspring Frostsaber mount, which has started me thinking about some of Warcraft's biggest time sinks - rare items that few acquire due to the difficulty involved, that make your character stand out in the crowds of players all wearing the same top-tier armor. The first players on the my server with prized items such as the Ashkahndi, the Staff of the Shadow Flame, and the Claw of Chromaggus had minor celebrity status for a while, but as more and more players have acquired the same drops, the unique factor of them has worn off. There are even enough players on the server with legendary items such as Sulfuras and Thunderfury that those no longer get a second glance. However, there are still a few items in-game that remain sufficiently rare as to be status symbols of a sort. Rare mounts rank highly among these, such as the Winterspring Frostsaber (which requires a long quest grind), the Swift Razzashi Raptor (a very rare drop from Zul'Gurub), the Swift Zulian Tiger (another very rare drop from Zul'Gurub), and Baron Rivendare's steed (such a rare drop that I have never seen anyone riding one).Are there any other items that you see as in-game status symbols (for good or bad)? Or any such rare items you plan to spend the time or effort acquiring for yourself?
PDZ and Kameo updates coming soon
Rare's letters page revealed some details on updates for both Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero. According to Kameo's lead designer, George Andreas, "Co-op over Live is currently in the last stages of debugging and should be available very soon. And there are firm plans to release more downloadable content soon after - details of which will be made available soon. Watch this space..."A response to another post said, "We do have DLC for both Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero on the way, yes. I can't give exact details because nothing's been announced yet, but I believe it's common knowledge that there'll be more multiplayer maps available for PDZ at the very least."Another response revealed upcoming enhancements to Perfect Dark Zero, "We're making more levels for multiplayer, and we'll be doing a title update to fix some of the annoying issues players have with the game. More news on when exactly that's going to happen will come later on down the line. Clan functionality was supposed to be available from the MGS side, but it didn't make it in for launch."[Via Joystiq]
Rumors squashed! MS debunks top 10 360 rumors
Microsoft's Cesar Menendez has decided to take out the trash, tossing the top 10 Xbox 360 rumors out. Here's his list: 10. Kameo is a kid's game: Not true. It's got a T rating. You can impale baddies with the spikes on your own back. Impale! 9. Xbox 360 is being recalled: There is no recall. Period. Return rates are actually lower than consumer electronics (CE) industry averages. 8. Microsoft is intentionally withholding product so as to build artificially high demand: Seriously. Think of the revenue hit we'd take if we actually did that. 7. Halo 3 is finished, and just sitting in a warehouse somewhere (in Poughkeepsie): See #8. Actually, come to think of it: we haven't announced anything about anything of which you claim we've announced or finished, as it were. 6. ____(insert name)___ is an alien/getting fired/fighting with _______ (Robbie Bach, Brian Lee, Peter Moore, J Allard, etc.): Nope. Peter's my boss' boss' boss, and I just want to say, in case you're reading this: "you're great!" 5. Everyone at Xbox is evil (or a robot, or is money grubbing, etc.): Dude - we're gamers. We're just trying to make a better games and entertainment than the other guy. 4. We stopped working on backwards compatibility: Still going. 3. We chose Barbie's Horse Adventure first, because we didn't want PGR2 to be BackCompat: Nope, some titles are just bonus because other titles work. 2. Sony will launch a broadband service better than Xbox Live: A big, bold claim. Two words: Emotion Engine. 1. Bungie has no plans to take over the world: Not true. Just look at their seven step plan. I have to agree with just about every one of these, except the Kameo one (which I didn't care for). Though it may not explicitly be a children's game, the reality is that it's not sure what it is. It looks like a children's game, but you impale enemies. It's not a rumor per se, but a misinterpretation due to a lack of focus or direction. Can't blame him for trying though.
PDZ video walkthroughs, on Dark Agent
If you're having some trouble making your way through Perfect Dark Zero, then watching these walkthrough videos completed on Dark Agent difficulty will either: Help you immensely, giving you that little edge you needed to make it through a tricky part... ...or crush your gaming spirit, quickly and wholly, reminding you that no matter how good you think you may be, there are an infinite number of people all over the world who are infinitely better at video games than you are. Dark Agent can only be unlocked after completing the entire game on Perfect Agent. Cheat Code Central has this to say about Dark Agent mode: "You don't even want to know about the Dark Agent. Only the hardest of the hardcore will see the ending credits on this difficulty level." [Thanks for the tip, Efrain]
