CATCHING UP WITH HALO 3

It’s been awhile since we’ve talked about Halo 3, hasn’t it? When last we checked in with Bungie, there was a great deal of concern that they weren’t going to be able to provide online co-op play due to the scale of the game and the corresponding synchronization issues. Well, on that end, it looks like things are going well, as back on July 31st, Kotaku reported that Bungie had announced that the game would support co-op play… four player co-op play.

“According to a recent Bungie announcement in Amsterdam, Halo 3 will indeed have 4-player co-op. One player will take the role of Master Chief, another will be The Arbiter and the last two (the suckers) will be Elites.” – Kotaku

In a recent Gamespot Q&A session with Bungie’s Frank O’Connor, O’Connor expanded on that news while also letting everyone in on a little more of what’s going on with the game’s development right now. As the Kotaku article indicated, there won’t be four Spartans running around – O’Connor confirmed that only the host will get to play as the Master Chief – the other players will play as the Arbiter and two Elite guards.

“GS: Why extend co-op to four players this time? Come on, four Master Chiefs?

FO: Nope. One Master Chief, one Arbiter, and two brand-new Elites: N’tho ‘Sraom and Usze ‘Taham, respectively. Only one player actually plays as a Spartan in co-op. And yes, that would be the host.” – Gamespot Halo 3 Q&A

That news initially worried me because it implied that the Arbiter will once again play a large role in Halo 3, and that was something that I felt would bring down Halo 3 just as it did Halo 2. Playing as an alien just sucked the life out of large segments of the game. Luckily, that does not seem to be the case this time;

“GS: The Arbiter showed up in the E3 trailer. How will he figure into the game this time? Will you play as him or–for that matter–anyone else besides Master Chief?

FO: We recently announced a four player co-op mode wherein one of the playable characters will be the Arbiter. When playing solo Campaign, the Arbiter will accompany you on many of your missions, this time controlled by artificial intelligence. – Gamespot Halo 3 Q&A

Let’s hope every time the Arbiter is on screen he’s being controller by either another player or the game’s artificial intelligence. With that little bit of good news tucked away, I was also thrilled to see that Bungie has apparently taken the criticisms of Halo 2 to heart when designing Halo 3.

“Player feedback largely reflected our own internal criticisms of our game. With that in mind, we set about fixing the things we didn’t like about Halo 2, reinserting some of the stuff that made Halo 1 cool, and inventing some new stuff that should ensure Halo 3 is everyone’s favorite Halo–fingers crossed.” – Frank O’Connor, Bungie

I’m hoping that means less indoor room to room fights and more of the wide-open battlefield encounters that made the original Halo special in my book.

With only about a month and a half to go before it’s September 25th launch, I’m sure the Microsoft press machine will begin it’s full on push for the holiday sales crown. It should be one heck of a ride.

• Halo 3 – Official website
• Bungie – Company website
• Halo 3 Will Support 4-Player Co-op – Kotaku
• Halo 3 Q&A: Campaign, Co-Op and More – Gamespot

NORTH AMERICAN 60GB PLAYSTATION 3 TO BE DISCONTINUED?

So much for a long term price cut… GamesIndustry.Biz (by way of Kotaku) is reporting that in an interview with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president David Reeves, Reeves answered the question of why Europe was not seeing a price cut by announcing that once Sony expends all it’s existing stock of the 60GB PlayStation 3 in the United States, the company will only supply 80GB models to the region;

"GamesIndustry.Biz: How concerned are you about possible criticisms that you should have given European consumers what SCEA has given US consumers, i.e. the option to pay a lower price?

David Reeves: Well, they’re not really are they, because what the US are offering from the 1st of August is a USD 599 version with one game. All they’re doing is taking their stock in trade that they’ve got at the moment of the 60GB model, marking the price down and it will all be gone by the end of July.

GamesIndustry.Biz: So once the 60GB is gone, that will be the end of the 60GB then?

David Reeves: In America, yes." – GamesIndustry.Biz interview with David Reeves

Now, either Reeves is just trying to cover for the lack of a European price drop or Sony really does plan on shooting itself in the foot yet again. What a public relations nightmare this one is going to be. Leave it to Sony to take the one positive piece of press they’ve gotten recently and totally screw it in a matter of days.

• E3: David Reeves Talks PS3 – GamesIndustry.Biz
• 60GB PS3 Being Taken Out To Pasture – Kotaku

SEGA-16 INTERVIEWS TOM KALINSKE

Sega-16 got a chance to sit down with ex-Sega of America president Tom Kalinske and for the first time get his reflections on the time he spent with the company.

The article really gives a good look at what was happening behind the scenes at Sega during the eras of the Genesis, Sega CD, 32X and Saturn consoles, including some insight into some of the issues between the U.S. and Japanese arms of the company as well as what was behind them.

"I think somewhere in the mid ‘90s – ’94 or ’95 – they built up a great deal of resentment, and I didn’t realize it at the time, until probably the latter part of 1995, when one of my colleagues in Japan, who I knew well and had a good relationship with, said to me something to the effect of “you don’t understand how browbeat and annoyed the Japanese executives here are because of your success. Every meeting we go into, Nakayama asks us why can’t you do things the way the Americans and Europeans did? Why aren’t you guys as successful as they are? We’ve been around longer.” I think the local executives didn’t appreciate that he’d take that tone with them. Apparently, he also beat them up over Sonic, which was never as successful in Japan as it was in the U.S. and Europe (to this day, that’s the case), and I think he was always throwing that in their faces too. So clearly, by late ’95 there was great resentment built up: jealously, resentment, and kind of a desire to get back at those Americans that Nakayama kept throwing in their faces." -Tom Kalinske

It’s definitely a good read for anyone who’s into video game history or was a die-hard Sega fan back in the day. You can check out the full interview here and when you finish, ask yourself if the Dreamcast might have fared better had Kalinske remained with Sega.

MICROSOFT PLANS 50 XBLA GAMES BY END OF YEAR

ComputerandVideoGames is reporting that in a recent interview with Microsoft‘s Major Nelson, Xbox Live Arcade group manager Greg Canessa stated that Microsoft plans on having 50 Xbox Live Arcade titles available by the end of the year.

Canessa also confirmed earlier statements by Microsoft that Live Arcade games will be debuting on the service on wednesdays only and added that they expect to announce more release dates for upcoming games before the Pac-Man is released on August 9th. Canessa reiterated that as of right now, Microsoft is not guaranteeing a new title every wednesday past August 9th.

“there may be a week that we skip and then a week where we release two titles” – Greg Canessa

Here’s to hoping we see more weeks of multiple releases than we do weeks with no new releases. Either way, it’s nice to see XBLA start getting the attention it deserves. Check out the ComputerAndVideoGames article here and start loading up on quarters!

BRAD WARDELL TALKS GALACTIC CIVILIZATIONS II: DARK AVATAR

Stardock founder Brad Wardell took some time out to talk to Firing Squad about the upcoming expansion to Galactic Civilizations II, Dark Avatar.

The interview itself covers a wide range of subjects ranging from Stardock’s now famous stance on copy protection, the unexpected huge mainstream success of Galactic Civilizations II, Playing the expansion campaign from the side of “the bad guys”, the digital only distribution plan for Dark Avatar and Stardock’s upcoming mmog. Wardell managed to sum up all of what Dark Avatar will be about in one paragraph;

“One of our big goals for this expansion pack is to do things a bit differently than one usually sees with expansion packs. It’s not about adding some new units and the like; it’s about really taking the gameplay to the next level. We want to introduce enough new gameplay concepts that will greatly extend the game’s lifespan for players. To put it another way, I didn’t want to have to wait for a sequel or something to get this stuff in; some of the features are really exciting. Being able to design your opponents, for instance, seems so obvious in hindsight that there was no way we were going to wait until some future sequel to do that; it’s too compelling. Hopefully gamers will feel the same way.” -Brad Wardell, President & CEO, Stardock

As for when we can all expect to get our grubby hands on Dark Avatar, Wardell stated that Stardock hopes to have Dark Avatar ready by this holiday season, and that his task of coding the AI will begin once he’s finished working on v1.3 of the GalCiv2. I, for one, can hardly wait.

Check out the full text of the interview here and our previous coverage of Dark Avatar here. While you’re at it, you better start working on your Drengin snarl of contempt – it’s looking kind of weak.

KIKIZO GAMES INTERVIEWS TOMONOBU ITAGAKI

Kikizo Games had a chance to sit down with Tecmo’s Tomonobu Itagaki and talk about DOAX2, Ninja Gaiden 2 and how he gets his ideas for game development. Always an interesting interview subject, Itagaki takes the interview pretty much all over the place and reveals one of his secrets of game design over a set of questions.

His secret? He comes up with better ideas while he’s drunk;

“Haha! It’s hard to say, because I am drinking pretty much full-time. Of course, there are ups and downs, waves, of how I drink in terms of the amount, but it’s a long period of time. In the last ten years – not that you asked this question – I think I had better ideas when I was drinking whisky. When I am drinking shochu, that’s a conservative drink, so the ideas are not that great. Beer is just like water to me, so it just helps me and everyone else loosen up a little bit, it doesn’t really contribute to coming up with ideas.” -Tomonobu Itagaki

So there ya have it kids – if you want to be a legendary game designer, you’d better start working on your drinking skills now. (Please note that that’s a JOKE – do not go out and develop a drinking problem on my say so)

He did however find time to touch on the subject of the Playstation 3, Wii and Ninja Gaiden 2. On Gaiden 2, Itagaki noted that the game is now in the preparation stage, and given his tendency to only want to concentrate on one title at a time, it would indicate it may be his next project following DOAX2. On the subject of upcoming game consoles Itagaki was a little more restrained. He admitted to being intrigued by both systems, and expressed a desire to make games for the Wii, but reiterated his point that his focus is entirely on DOAX2 at the moment. He did however mention that there are other development teams looking at both consoles over at Tecmo, including one that is already working on a Wii golf title.

Check out the full interview at this link and be sure to take enough notes so you can explain to your boss why it’s good that you’re still drunk at 9am.

GAMESPOT INTERVIEWS RON GILBERT

Ron Gilbert, creative mind behind Guybrush Threepwood and Grumpy Gamer, was the first interviewee for Gamespot’s new “Designer Threads” feature, where they basically talk to a famous game designer and pick his brain on just about everything they can.

There are a lot of topics discussed in the online interview (which can be augmented with an even longer podcast interview), but what I want to focus on are two things that Gilbert mentioned in the interview;

First, Gilbert mentioned that he’s currently working on a game that he describes as a mix between a RPG and an adventure game. Here’s to hoping he finds a publisher for it, as it’s been too long since his humor has been seen in the gaming world.

Secondly, he mentions that he KNOWS the Secret of Monkey Island, and had originally planned on revealing it in the third game in the series. Unfortunately, when he left LucasArts before the game was made, the secret was lost forever… unless of course, he were to get a chance to make another Monkey Island game;

“I had definitely planned on doing that in the third game, yes. There’s no question about that, but, you know, and then when Jonathan and Larry made Monkey Island III, which is a great game…I think they did a fabulous job on that. They didn’t know what the secret was. I told nobody. So, you know, they weren’t really able to kind of reveal that, but I would love to make another Monkey Island game. If I could make another one…I have this whole story mapped out in my head for how I want to tie it all together with the other two games, kind of bring it all back to the original thing, and that would just be a dream of mine.” -Ron Gilbert

While I’d love nothing more than to see Ron Gilbert and Monkey Island reunited, the realist in me just doesn’t see it happening. Damn you LucasArts!

Check out the full interview and podcast at this link and join me in the Scumm Bar for a mug of Grog ™ when you’re done. You know… sometimes at night, I can still hear the monkeys.

LUCASARTS PREFERS SPEED OVER QUALITY

In an interview with UK site MCV, LucasArts president Jim Ward stated that the current industry practice of taking time to make sure a game is done right rather than just released on time is damaging the industry.

“There’s an attitude in this industry that says in order to make a great game, it takes whatever time it takes and it takes whatever money it takes, and that that’s okay. Well it’s not okay – it’s wrong. It’s not okay in other entertainment businesses. In other businesses it’s big trouble.” -Jim Ward

Yeah, ok… let’s not forget this is the guy who oversees the release of horrid, rushed Star Wars game after Star Wars game because, at least in his case, he has an audience that will buy his product regardless of whether it’s good or not. The rest of the industry doesn’t quite have that luxury.

Ward went on to single out Electronic Arts as a prime perpetrator of these delaying tactics and irresponsible business practices;

“When you have EA failing to bring Superman out with the movie, that’s inexcusable. Moving games like Medal of Honor and Godfather out of the fourth quarter -– that’s the old way of thinking and you can’t do that any more.” -Jim Ward

So what he’s saying here is that he’d rather have a game that sucks, but is on time and under budget than one that gamers love… and then he wonders why LucasArts has lost both the respect and buying dollars of non Star Wars addicted gamers over the years.

Next time you’re in a store and are trying to decide what game to spend your hard earned money on, when you see a LucasArts title, just tell yourself this … “it may suck, but at least it came out on time – and within budget. I’m sure that will give me some measure of satisfaction as it sits on my shelf never being played.” – I’m sure you’ll do the right thing… for the sake of the industry. (What about the children?!)

Seriously, what is with the executives in the gaming industry lately? Do they just not think before opening their mouths anymore? The full text of the interview can be read in the June 15th edition of MCV and you can check out the snippet from the article online here.

CLIFFYB’S NEXT PROJECT? LOOKS LIKE IT’S GEARS OF WAR 2

You didn’t think a week was going to go by without me having something to report on Gears of War, now did you? Videogamesblogger is reporting that in a Yahoo News chat session, when asked what his next project for Epic would be once Gears of War is completed, CliffyB responded “Gears of War 2, I’d imagine.”

While certainly not a revolutionary bit of news, as I’m sure we all realize that if Gears of War does as well as it’s expected to it would inevitably get a sequel, it does make a point that whatever is going to happen in Gears won’t be limited to just the first game. CliffyB mentioned in his podcast interview with OXM that Gears of War would start dark and only get darker, and this could be an indication that the entire story arc may take more than one game to complete. Check out the Videogameblogger report here and be sure to get your copy of Gears of War reserved asap. You can also check out our write up of that OXM podcast interview here.

AOL GAMES FATHER’S DAY SPECIAL

In honor of Father’s Day, AOL Games ran a short feature on 7 game designers and the games they play with their children. Included in the feature are such prominent names as Sid Meier, Brian Reynolds and Will Wright. It’s not exactly the most in depth look into the home life of game developers, but it’s always nice to see a pro-gaming article that refers to families playing games together.

OXM PODCAST INTERVIEW WITH CLIFFYB

The Official Xbox Magazine had a chance to talk with Gears of War’s CliffyB on a recent podcast about Gears, E3 and everything in between. As usual, CliffyB makes for one hell of an interview subject, and doesn’t dance around the subject when talking about the industry or Gears itself. Here’s a small sampling of what the 30 minute interview touched on.

• On E3
  • The Gears team was very happy with the reception the game got at E3, so much so that they had to remind themselves that there’s still a long way to go, and it’s nowhere near time to start celebrating.
  • The tension between Microsoft and Epic over the chainsaw bayonet was played up a bit for the MTV special. While there were some issues involving the decision to put the chainsaw in the demo, it wasn’t nearly as tense as it was made out to be.
  • Despite the great reception Gears got, the team is still working hard to make the game just right. As CliffyB put it;
    • “The difference between good and great are all those small touches.” – Cliff “CliffyB” Bleszinski
• On taking cover in Gears
  • There’s a huge emphasis in the game on making you feel the “weight” and realism of the game. They use Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter as an example of this. In GRAW, when you come up against a wall, you simply lean up on it for the most part. In Gears they want that feeling of momentum – it’s not supposed to be this delicate little maneuver, but rather express the feeling that you are in a battle for your life, and anything that is going to save you is good, no matter how painful it may be. Since he’s so quotable, here’s CliffyB’s thoughts on the matter;
    • “If I’m being shot at, I’m gonna dive into that fucking wall, man. I’m gonna hit that wall like a ton of bricks. I don’t care if I blow out my clavicle doing it” -Cliffy B
• Grenades
  • Grenades are going to be somewhat rare in the game, and will come both in the explosive and smoke variants.
  • At first, grenades were not in mutiplayer, but have now been added.
• The idea behind Gears of War
  • CliffyB wanted to do something akin to Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers, but didn’t want to go anywhere near the WWII era, as he feels it’s been done to death.
  • The game initially was essentially “Quake Wars”, and featured large open battlefields with massive vehicles, etc.
  • The Locust were originally invaders from space, not an underground race.
  • The Locust originally had a different name that was changed due to legal issues. CliffyB would not go into further details on that end.
  • It’s designed to feature close quarter battles that bring the violence to a personal level.
• On the chainsaw bayonet
  • The idea goes back to a game he wanted to create back in 1998 called Overfiend. This game was the reason he moved from California to the Epic offices in North Carolina, and the loss of the title almost caused him to leave Epic.
• On where his career has taken him
  • I’ll let CliffyB take this one without any further comment from me.
    • “I want to create IP. I think one of my strengths is to create games that feel good, are fun and solid, but also, you know, a decent, interesting, fascinating universe that could potentially transfer well to other mediums…like Underoos.” -CliffyB
• On the plot of Gears of War
  • In discussing the plot and how games tend to try and give you a happy ending, he states that Gears will “start dark and just get darker.”
  • The game will not be totally grim though. They’ve hired Lester Speight, better known as “Terrible” Terry Tate, Office Linebacker to play the part of one of Marcus Fenix’s squad mates. Let me tell you, this game just sounds better and better to me all the time.
  • In summing up the game, CliffyB jokingly took a page from Peter Molyneaux‘s book and gave us some hype;
    • “I tell you, this game is going to do everything for you, It’s going to wash your car, it’s gonna make coffee, give you a hand job, it’ll fulfill all your dreams.” he then added, “Can you tell I’m nervous as shit about this?”

The wait until Emergence Day just feels longer and longer with each passing day, but the more I hear about how much effort is being put into making Gears something special, the more that wait seems worthwhile. you can check out the full (NSFW) OXM podcast here, the Gears of War official website here, and CliffyB’s personal website here. Now get moving!

ERIC NYLUND ON GEARS OF WAR

The official Gears of War website has posted a short interview with Eric Nylund, current story advisor to Epic Games on Gears of War and author of Halo: The Fall of Reach, regarding the story behind the game. The latest revelation? Despite the claim in the E3 trailer that “For a time, the humans of Sera knew the illusion of peace”, Nylund states that the the people of Sera have been involved in a long-standing war over valuable energy resources when the Locust attack;

“The humans of Sera have been fighting a decades-long war over the miracle energy source known as Imulsion when a new enemy appears: The Locust Horde. Erupting from underground warrens, the Horde attacks humanity, and overnight more than a quarter of the planet’s population is massacred. What remains of the human military flees to Jacinto Plateau, where they make a final desperate stand against overwhelming forces.” -Eric Nylund

While it’s a short interview to say the least, I think by now anyone who follows this site should know by now that I’ll jump on just about any Gears of War news I can find. Check out the full interview here.

KIKIZO GAMES INTERVIEWS PETER MOLYNEAUX

If you know me, you know I have a mixed opinion of Peter Molyneaux. I certainly believe the man is a visionary game designer and that he honestly wants to push the boundaries of gaming to their absolute limits. On the other hand, the man has never really known when to keep his mouth shut and has overhyped his games and promised so many features that it’s nearly impossible to ever live up to them. Black & White and Fable, and all the broken promises clearly come to mind anytime I hear his name.

Anyway, Kikizo Games had a chance to talk to PM one on one, and came away with some tantalizing hints about Lionhead Studios upcoming sequel to Fable while finally managing to keep his word and not promise the world. It’s a great read, and touches on both where Lionhead is going now that they’re under the Microsoft Games umbrella and the difficulties being faced by independent studios in the industry.

Perhaps most interesting are the small hints about possible features we’ll be seeing in Fable 2 – the one which I found the most interesting is when asked about if he’d ever consider making Fable a MMOG, Molyneaux had the following to say;

“I can’t really answer the question in detail, but you know, personally, I’m more fascinated in what Live means to you and your friends. I think that’s a really exciting thing. I think of MMO games as being a way to make new friends, and what fascinates me as a designer, at what I found when I was playing on the 360 with the friends list, I really found that there was a very interesting bond that happened when you played the same game together, and I found that fascinating. So it’s a bit of a mysterious answer, but, you know… I can’t really give any examples.” -Peter Molyneaux

Now this is just a guess on my part, but looking at the above comment and seeing how the E3 teaser showed TWO heroes killing a creature as a team, I’m thinking we’re going to be looking at some type of co-op mode in Fable 2 via Xbox Live. Again, there’s nothing official behind that, that’s just how I’m calling what I’ve seen and read. Check out the full interview with Peter Molyneaux at Kikizo Games here and be amazed.

ANOTHER WII FEATURE REVEALED?

CNN Money has posted an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo in which they discuss the Wii, Miyamoto’s reaction to the name, and what could very well be another surprise feature of the console. While discussing Sony following Nintendo’s lead with the motion sensor, they hint at another feature of the console, personalized gamer images.

““The game was Wii Tennis – but instead of using generic character models, the onscreen faces in this match were caricatures of Miyamoto, Iwata and Fils-Aime (the contest winner did not have a personalized character). At the time, it seemed like a visual in-joke for conference attendees, but Miyamoto said the Wii might be able to create those personalized visages for players and their family members.” – CNN Money

When I first saw the caricatures of Miyamoto, Fils-Aime and Iwata in the press conference, I figured it was done specifically for the demonstration and wasn’t indicative of a new feature. From what I saw, I would assume it will be more akin to creating a virtual avatar who resembles you as opposed to digitizing your actual likeness. Either way, it could be a very cool personalization feature for many of the Wii games. Click Here to head over to the CNN Money article.

SEATTLE TIMES INTERVIEW WITH SATORU IWATA

During E3, the Seattle Times got a chance to speak to Nintendo President Satoru Iwata. Surprisingly, It’s actually a pretty good read and not the usual clueless rambling you’d expect from a “normal” news outlet. As for Iwata’s thoughts on the Wii name;

“There were some criteria for us to come up with the name. It had to be short enough so that we didn’t need any other nicknames or abbreviation. What we are targeting with Wii is not only existing gamers, but also people who have shown no interest in other games. These non gamers, for example, really cannot understand what GBA means, if GBA is something different from Game Boy Advance. We wanted something with a strong impact that people will remember as soon as they hear it.

Finally, we wanted a name unlike any video-game machines” Satoru Iwata

You know, as much as I griped when the name was announced, following the whole E3 week, I’ve got to admit the Wii name is really beginning to click with me. I think it’s all the fun people are having with the name – I mean, if just saying the consoles name is that much fun, the thing itself must be a blast!

In fact, forget about all the stuff Nintendo officially has said about the name, that should be their answer. “We wanted a name that could at least begin to provide you with the fun our console will.” – Wiially.

Click here for the Seattle Times interview.