Tag Archive: news


GDC 2012: The Art and Design of Batman: Arkham City

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March 16, 2012

One of the major reasons that the Batman: Arkham series from Rocksteady has been so successful is the look and feel of the game. It is as if the Dark Knight has leapt right from the pages of Detective Comics and onto our TV sets. And one of the key men behind this feeling is the Art Director on both games, David Hego. David did a short panel at GDC explaining what inspirations went into Arkham City and also a few problems they noticed in Arkham Asylum, like Detective Mode, and how they tried to fix them.

Right from the get go, David admitted that being Batman is pretty freakin’ cool. And so game play was always the primary pillar for both games. The combo systems, the gadgets, the villains, etc., but this is still a visual medium so although some may see the art of the game as having taken a bit of a secondary role, it was still vital to the experience and knowing this, he and his team had a monumental task on hand as they wanted to give a respectful interpretation and thus created their Arkham-verse. Their representation, although a bit different, still needed to have Batman’s DNA all over it from the locations to the characters designs, like making the Penguin’s monocle a broken bottle.

And so when it came to actually crafting Arkham City, he and his team looked to blend the late 19th century Art Nouveau movement with the very modern Hyperrealism. The hyperrealism comes out best in many of the game’s character models, but much of the architecture took on more of the Art Nouveau style, like the Wonder Tower, which was modeled after the Eiffel Tower, one of Art Nouveau’s most easily recognizable works.

He also spoke to the challenges he had in designing Arkham City, like fixing the Detective Mode as he reminisced about how heart breaking it was to hear players spending the entirety of Arkham Asylum in that mode. And so they removed everything that was not vital from that mode so navigation and combat became much more difficult and compelled players to play the game it was meant to be played.

Another problem Hego spoke to was normalization. “Normalization is when the player stops being in awe of what they see on the screen. And what happens is a normal part of gaming. You start getting into the action and the game play and the narrative and you stop focusing in on a lot of the details of the environment. And even many of the subtle color schemes of Arkham City’s levels hurt us because they appeal to the base instincts of gamers where we have an ice level with Mr. Freeze, the steel mill is a fire level, Poison Ivy is our jungle level, and so on. So we need to combat this with a lot of variety. Contrasting elements and color schemes to keep things entertaining. So we create a lot of clashing in many of the levels. We added a lot of fanfare and the giant white clown faces to the steel mill to help fight the oranges and reds, for example. And so we just keep clashing in the hopes of creating new and still interesting environments.”

Hego also talked about how much the posters and Riddler clues spoke to the world they wanted to create without being too distracting to the player and taking away from the experience and even removing details in many areas with enemies and NPCs so that the player would focus on the objectives at hand.

All in all, Hego’s brief talk was an interesting look into seeing how this gorgeous world was created and how much care went into making sure we players and fans were happy while Hego and his team were still able to express themselves creatively in a way that fit into the game play and story.

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GDC 2012: The Business and Development of Sworcery

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Thousands of games hit the iOS market each week with hopes of breaking through into the pop culture and making an impact. One such game, Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP has been considered widely successful with both critical acclaim and solid sales (350,000 units sold in less than a year of being available). But what makes this game stand out above those thousands and thousands of other games out there, and what might keep it from reaching an Angry Birds level?

It was this idea behind Nathan Vella’s panel, the Co-founder and President of Capybara Games, the developer behind Sword and Sworcery, that made it an interesting panel to help kick off Day 1 of GDC, especially for all those prospective iOS developers out there. Nathan wanted to give us a glimpse inside the development process that went into Sword and Sworcery as well as offer advice to those who might be looking to use iOS as a jumping off platform for their Indie game.

Much of the panel’s focus revolved around the fact that the game’s success came from the game’s uniqueness and it’s very specific demographic, which he admitted they had assumed could not have been more than 10% of what the game has actually sold. Condemning the notion of “Everyone” being a demographic, Vella explained that is the target that most of the games released on a weekly basis are also trying to hit and how much harder it is to compete against the world. That’s why Sword and Sworcery, a unique game tailored with a very specific audience in mind, stood a much better chance of floating to the top of the sea of games out there on the iOS platform.

“There is a set of gamers, maybe even a subset of gamers, who really just want to play something new. If you provide that something and its worth playing, you’re not actually competing against 99% of the market. You’re competing against the other one percent. Sure, you’re not reaching for the biggest slice of the money pie, but you’re at least ensuring that your project will be successful and be successful in the right way, which is beginning with the people you care about as a game developer,” said Vella.

He continued on about how nice it would be to sell the millions of units of an Angry Birds or a Fruit Ninja, but that for most people that is just completely unrealistic.

“At Capy, we talk about it a lot as if we are playing the iPhone lottery. And basically that’s what happens when you try to compete against all these guys who are trying to do the same thing. If you’re trying to make the next Angry Birds, you’re basically walking up to a slot machine, putting your game budget into the slot, pulling the lever, and praying to God you get three f***ing cherries,” added Vella.

Along with this, Vella talked about how collaboration and contributions from sometimes unexpected sources were very helpful and even crucial to the project, but that if you and your team believe in your product and stay true to it, while troubleshooting some of the more stressful aspects of going over budget or schedule, that good things would happen in the end. It was refreshing to see Vella’s conviction and that by staying true to the game’s concept, all the way through to marketing and PR and sales of the game in the iTunes store, and by being different, that they were able to rise above much of the mucky-muck out there to make one of the more memorable games in recent iOS memory.

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Borderlands 2 Release Date Revealed

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February 23, 2012

THE BUZZ: 2K Games announces the official release date of Borderlands 2 with a new trailer as well as their pre-order bonuses for different retailers.

EGM’S TAKE: With the launch of the game’s official website at http://borderlands2.com, 2K Games has revealed the new “Doomsday” trailer and in the process let us all know that the release date for Borderlands 2 will be September 18, 2012.

The release looks to avoid the holiday rush that usually starts to ramp up shortly after that date and should help the game garner more notice with new audiences who may look to jump on board the series.

The three-minute trailer, which you can check out below, also gives us a quick glimpse of all characters in the game including the previously unrevealed Axton, who looks like Roland’s soldier type, and Zero, who carries a sword and therefore is automatically awesome. We also see some of Maya’s skill tree and what unique havoc she’ll be able to unleash.

“Borderlands 2 is a passion project through and through. The result is a sequel that has improved every successful aspect of Borderlands while innovating with an all-new experience,” said Gearbox Software President Randy Pitchford with the release of the news.

Along with this, 2K has unveiled the same pre-order bonus should you pre-order from Gamestop or Amazon.com. Being called the “Premiere Club”, you’ll get access to three items. The first is a Golden Key that unlocks a special item in the Sanctuary Loot Chest, the Vault Hunter’s Relic that boosts your in-game fortune hunting, and the Geabox Gun Pack, which includes a bunch of unique golden guns that should help you during your conquest of Pandora.

What do you folks think? Is Borderlands 2 on your must-have list? Does the pre-order pack help? What do you think of the new characters Axton and Zero? Let us know your thoughts with comments below!

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Tim Schafer Reveals First Details About Kickstarter Funded Game

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THE BUZZ: Tim Schafer let everyone know what some of the funds from his Kickstarter funded adventure game will be going to.

EGM’S TAKE: In an entertaining as always video, Tim Schafer let the universe know that aside from being available on Steam, the game will also be available on iOS and Android platforms. All the extra funds will also allow for English voice actors and for the text in the game to be translated into French, Italian, German, and Spanish.

As the project rapidly (it literally made another $1,000 in the time it took me to write this article) approaches the $1.9 million mark at the posting of this article, I for one cannot wait to see what Schafer and company can come up with considering that is near the same budget as Stacking.

What do you folks think? Are you amped for this game? How about that it will come to iOS and Android? Let us know what you think below!

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DICE Summit 2012 Wrap-Up

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The DICE Summit is an annual convention put on by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences that sees the gaming industry’s best and brightest come together to exchange ideas, celebrate the year that was, and look ahead to the future. There’s also some fun to be had as well as each Summit kicks off with an annual Poker tournament along with a golf and go-kart excursion before things really start to get underway.

Now, I admit I’m still recovering from my week in Vegas as the DICE Summit is unlike any other gaming convention we go to as games journalists and as a DICE rookie, I admit I was a bit taken aback at just seeing the tremendous talent that was often brought together in one room at any given panel or presentation. Nowhere else might you see Epic Games’ CEO Tim Sweeney lecture an audience with Ted Price from Insomniac Games, Todd Howard from Bethesda, and David Jaffe from Eat Sleep Play in attendance on how graphics will never need to go past 72 frames a second. Speaking of Todd Howard though, he gave a wonderful opening keynote for this year’s event as well.

Such topics that were spearheaded this year were how the publishing model may evolve from here and what harm it may be doing to the creative side of the industry, the future of technology in games, console gaming vs. social media gaming, and how some people outside the gaming industry could speak to certain key elements that need not be forgotten when making games. Among these were legendary songwriter/producer Glen Ballard talking about the importance of collaboration and Issac Gilmore of SEAL Team 7 talking about leadership.

And, of course, there were some surprises as well including the endearing speech by Tomonobu Itagaki, co-founder of Valhalla Games, but many of you probably know him better for his work at Tecmo on the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden series. His heart felt presentation on the depression he fell into after he felt Dead or Alive 2 was rushed to market and was initially incomplete shows how much of his heart he put into his games. Speaking of how he would drink days away during this dark moment in his life until hearing Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” and using that as inspiration to pull his life and company back together was a jaw-dropping moment for many.

But, of course, this all culminated in the Interactive Achievement Awards. Think of them as the video game Oscars (the SpikeTV VGAs are more like the Grammys, lots of show with very little substance). This year marked the 15th anniversary of the awards and was hosted for the 7th time by fellow Jersey-boy and comedian extraordinaire Jay Mohr. Although criticized by some, I thought Mohr did a superb job hosting the show once again and had my table and I in stitches during his entire opening monologue segment. In total, there were 26 categories this year as voted on by a panel of industry insiders and movers and shakers.

Here is the final breakdown:

  • Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition: Portal 2
  • Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design: Battlefield 3
  • Outstanding Achievement in Story: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
  • Outstanding Character Performance: Wheatley – Portal 2
  • Downloadable Game of the Year – Bastion
  • Casual Game of the Year – Fruit Ninja Kinect
  • Social Networking Game of the Year – The Sims Social
  • RPG/MMO of the Year – Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
  • Outstanding Innovation in Gaming – Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure
  • Sports Game of the Year – FIFA 12
  • Racing Game of the Year – Forza Motorsport 4
  • Fighting Game of the Year – Mortal Kombat
  • Strategy/Sim Game of the Year – Orcs Must Die!
  • Family Game of the Year – LittleBigPlanet 2
  • Mobile Game of the Year – Infinity Blade II
  • Handheld Game of the Year – Super Mario 3D Land
  • Adventure Game of the Year – Batman: Arkham City
  • Outstanding Achievement in Online Play – Star Wars: The Old Republic
  • Outstanding Achievement in Connectivity – Portal 2
  • Action Game of the Year – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
  • Outstanding Achievement in Animation – Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
  • Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction – Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
  • Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering – Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
  • Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering – Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
  • Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction – Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
  • Game of the Year – Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

I agree with most of these choices, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t use this chance to mention a few gripes I had. I disagree wholeheartedly with Fruit Ninja Kinect as Casual Game of the Year because it’s just the iOS game expanded to use your whole body. I thought Jetpack Joyride was more deserving. And I just have to shake my head at Skylanders winning Outstanding Innovation because it’s big innovation is simply finding another source of income for gaming publishers. LA Noire’s facial recognition technology was more impressive in my book. In fact, that also could’ve taken Outstanding Achievements in Animation and Visual Engineering as well. I also have a problem with Outstanding Achievement in Connectivity. Portal 2’s co-op mode is superb, but it has no replay value. So it may connect to someone on a deep level, but then it is gone. I think Gears of War 3 or Saints Row: The Third, games not even nominated, would have been a better choice.

My final gripe comes with Skyrim taking Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering considering the bevy of glitches throughout that game, especially for PS3 users who are JUST NOW getting that fixed. A bigger world does not make a better working world. It should have gone to Arkham City for its combat and grappling hook and gliding mechanics or even Portal 2 for fun with portals and its amazing physics.

Now, that I’ve gotten that out of my system, the IAAs also saw Ed Logg, creator of Asteroids, Centipede, and Gauntlet awarded the Gmaing Pioneer Award and Tim Sweeney, Founder and CEO of Epic Games, inducted into the Gaming Hall of Fame. Big thumbs up to those guys.

The Summit concluded with the 3rd Annual Indie Game Challenge. Here, dreams are born in garages or parents’ basements and these individuals or small teams put their dream and engineering skills to the test. The 10 finalists all walked away with something even for being invited to DICE, but the big winner took home a whopping $100,000 and it went to a game called Closure submitted by Eyebrow Interactive. Closure felt a bit like Lost in Shadow, but with much stronger emphasis on the dynamic between light and shadow as you moved your character through a striking black and white world. My personal favorite though was The Bridge submitted by Ty Taylor and Mario Castaneda as you traversed a 2.5 D puzzle laden world that looked like a M.C. Escher drawing come to life.

So all in all, the 2012 DICE Summit did exactly what it was meant to do. It celebrated games on every level and brought up some amazing points of conversation for those of us in the industry for the future and hopefully will help bring some exciting new stuff to you folks, the player, in the future.

If you want to check out some of the panels that I mentioned above or see some other ones not mentioned, feel free to head over to http://www.interactive.org as everything was taped on put online after the weekend concluded.

All pictures courtesy of the AIAS.

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Darksiders II Pre-Order Deals Announced

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THE BUZZ: THQ has officially announced their pre-order deals for Darksiders II at Best Buy, Gamestop, and Amazon and they are all available from now until the game’s anticipated release date of June 26th.

EGM’S TAKE: The best deal of the bunch looks to be the one from Gamestop as a pre-order there nets you the “Death Rides” pack featuring multiple exclusive side-quests worth about an extra two hours of content and will allow you to explore more of two areas in the game: Maker’s Realm and Dead Plains. I’ve always preferred more content over anything else when it comes to my DLC.

The Best Buy offer is more for the player who cares about his Horseman’s looks though with the “Angel of Death” pack. A unique set of enhanced Angel armor, a pair of upgraded scythes, and a special visual trail for your companion crow Dust are featured in this pack.

The Amazon offer is for the “Deadly Despair” pack and only offers players a permanent speed boost to Death’s mighty steed Despair. If you’re all about getting from point A to point B as fast as possible though, and if this world is supposed to be as big as its being touted to be, then speed might make a big difference in your game play experience.

What do you folks think? Are you going to pre-order the game now for the extra content? Is there a particular store that you prefer regardless of deals? Or are you just going to wait and see and not bother with the pre-order? Let us know your thoughts with comments below!

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Prototype 2 Best Buy Pre-Order Package Revealed

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February 14, 2012

THE BUZZ: Activision and Radical Entertainment have announced the special items you will receive if you pre-order Prototype 2 from Best Buy.

EGM’S TAKE: Gamestop recently revealed the Bio-Bomb Butt Kicker ability if you were to pre-order Prototype 2 with them and so Best Buy made sure that their deal had to at least be on par with that.

If you pre-order from Best Buy, James Heller will have access to the Hardened Steel armor, which can best be summed up by Radical Entertainment Studio Head, Ken Rosman:

“Prototype 2′s Hardened Steel Vehicle Armor allows Sgt. James Heller to jump into any military vehicle and shrug off even the most devastating attacks. Whether fighting off individual soldiers, helicopters, tanks, and APCs or all the above at once, this upgrade provides Heller a defensive advantage as he goes head-to-head against everything the enemy Blackwatch forces throw at him.”

This sounds all well and good, but I’m concerned because if this armor is supposed to be as powerful as Rosman hypes up, does it stand a chance of making the game too easy then? Could this allow you to buy your way to some easy trophies and achievements? It sounds like the start of a slippery pre-order slope if you ask me. Then again, if you’re just playing the game to blow stuff up without remorse to begin with, then this will likely just help you to do more of that so I guess it all depends on what reason you have for playing the game.

Along with the armor, there will be a limited edition Prototype 2 poster while supplies last to go with the Best Buy bundle.

Will these items make you want to pre-order the game from Best Buy? Was Prototype 2 on your spring wish list before this announcement? Where do you typically get your games from? Let us know your thoughts with comments below!

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2K Reveals First MLB 2K12 Trailer

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THE BUZZ: 2K has released their first official trailer for MLB 2K12 highlighting their “My Player” mode.

EGM’S TAKE: The trailer shows a young up and coming middle-infielder in the White Sox organization as he moves through the ranks until his first major league at-bat against 2011 AL Cy Young and MVP winner Justin Verlander.

Along with the “My Player” mode, 2K is stressing their enhanced A.I. this year and having a youngster get schooled by Verlander in his first MLB at-bat helps stress that. Throw in the great commentary crew of John Kruk, Steve Phillips, and Gary Thorne setting the stage and the feel, even if not the look, of a MLB game is all around you.

As I watched this, I couldn’t help but think though that 2K needs this year’s game to do well so highlighting their strengths is a must as even with having the Xbox 360 all to themselves, they typically do not do as well both critically and sales-wise compared to the Sony exclusive series The Show. And with 2K’s contract with MLB coming up, there is a chance that both parties could walk away as 2K is tired of bleeding money, even after signing that fat contract with MLB back in 2005, and MLB is tired of the series taking two steps forward and then a step back. And without 2K willing to put the money into a better graphics engine for the game, fans will continue to gravitate over to The Show just on looks alone, as shallow as that may sound. But let’s all enjoy the rookie striking out for the time being and think happy thoughts, shall we? Pitchers and catchers report soon after all. The full trailer is below.

Are you folks fans of The Show or 2K? What do you think of the trailer? Do you prefer making your own player or just jumping into Franchise mode? Let us know what you think with comments below!

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Microsoft Proclaims No New System Reveal in 2012

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THE BUZZ: Amid a swirl of internet rumors, and shortly after Sony insinuated they would not reveal new hardware this year themselves, Microsoft has said that nothing new will be seen from them in 2012 either.

EGM’S TAKE: In an interview with French website Lepoint.Fr, Cedrick Delmax, the Microsoft France Marketing Director, said (assumedly in French before being translated) that Microsoft is not looking to reveal new hardware this year.

“Xbox 360′s cycle is not at all finished. The proof is that we don’t see the logic in cutting the price this year. E3 is still premature. What’s certain is that there’ll be nothing new in 2012,” said Delmax specifically in his statement.

Saying that E3 is premature likely means that indeed a mid-June reveal as originally rumored is just that: a rumor. And that surely takes a 2012 hardware release off the shelf. But even if the new hardware wasn’t slated until 2013, the lack of a reveal must be disheartening for fans that were salivating at the thought of seeing something this year. Plus, it wouldn’t be out of character for Microsoft to promise big things in a distant future as they did the same thing with the Kinect by showing it off a couple years before its release. Thus, a 2012 E3 reveal did make sense to a lot of folks.

So, now with Sony saying they would be the last to announce something (to see all of what Sony said on the possibility of their new console, check out Matthew Bennett’s article here), the question now becomes is this a sick game of console chicken? Are both Microsoft and Sony just going to stand back to see who flinches first? Or is it more to see if Nintendo can pull themselves up by their bootstraps after disheartening sales over the past year, especially for the Wii, and if the Wii-U stumbles out of the gate, then announce something to go in for the kill? Or if the Wii-U works well, then steal some of Nintendo’s ideas and incorporate them into their own next-gen system for maybe a 2014 release? I think possibly a little from column A and a little column B in that case, but only time will tell in the end. Not to mention, this could all just be a red herring to try to keep our expectations low as sometimes Microsoft just can’t help themselves when they get a chance to steal the show at E3.

What do you folks think? Disappointed by the news? Is it a red herring? Do you think Nintendo’s plans are influencing either Sony or Microsoft? Let us know your thoughts with comments below!

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Word Game Reveals Curious XBLA Word Filter

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THE BUZZ: The popular iOS game Quarrel that was ported to XBLA last week has revealed a curious feature in the Xbox Live Arcade that no one was privy to before.

EGM’S TAKE: The feature in question is a word filter for all Xbox Live games that really comes into play with Quarrel as the entire game revolves around using words to conquer territories a la Risk.

I personally had taken note of this phenomenon in my review of the game, which you can see here, when I was wondering why the word “SATURN” had been denied me, especially since I had the family filter off and was able to use some more crude words later on in the game dealing with human anatomy (if the family filter is on, those words are removed as well). I had chalked it up possibly to human error somehow or that maybe just being a proper noun was enough to get it tossed, but I really didn’t see a problem with the sixth planet from the sun being used.

But it seems that I wasn’t alone as gamers have been complaining on the game’s forums since its release that words like “dice”, “start”, “help”, and “train” are among the many other common, harmless words strangely omitted from the game’s vocabulary. In an official statement, Gary Penn who works for Quarrel developer Denki mentioned “Microsoft has an additional filter in place for all Xbox Live games, which we have to support.”

This statement alludes to many reports we’ve heard over recent months of some of the ridiculous hoops developers sometimes have to jump through to get their game onto the Xbox Live Arcade, but a word filter like this for a word game seems particularly ludicrous. Maybe someone at Microsoft can “help” me understand this better, but they have yet to make a statement regarding the matter so until then fellow Quarrel fans, just take note when attempting “word domination”.

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