As the opening keynote for the fifth Montreal International Game Summit, celebrated game designer Warren Spector (Deus Ex) had to live up to his own legacy.

Origin and Looking Glass veteran Spector, whose Junction Point development studio is now owned by Disney, recalled a pessimistic talk he gave at the summit in 2005, "Gaming in the Margins," where he discussed industry challenges, from new hardware to increased media scrutiny -- and turned out to be "pretty much wrong about everything."

"The positives are all still positive and the negatives aren’t so bad," said Spector at the keynote. "Maybe it was because I was an independent developer struggling to survive, while now I'm in a corporation [Disney] which smooths things out -- or maybe I was just plain wrong."

Yet he admitted that thanks to the current economic downturn, "things have changed."

"Lots of companies are in trouble, and many of my friends have been laid off," Spector revealed. "So it in bad taste to be happy about how the industry is doing?"

But, he suggests: "I am still optimistic in the way I wasn't three years ago and haven't been in a really long time. We are still in a sort of renaissance, and we really can be the medium of the 21st century."

Knocked Down, Will Get Up Again

"Taking the long view, this current downturn will pass," Spector continued. "There are new audiences to find, new businesses will thrive. I know this may sound strange to you, but I was never really convinced that games were going to survive -- I was always sure that one day we'd become a niche product like comics. But I no longer believe that's possible, not until some medium comes along that no one in this room can even imagine."

"I may be known to hate MMOs," the Deux Ex co-creator laughed, "but compared to other mediums they’re some of the best entertainment value you can get. Even a sixty dollar game usually offers more value than a sixty dollar date..."

Though Spector feels that creativity and innovation are healthy in the industry even in the current downturn, he still warned that it was something that still needed to be argued for.

"The reality is that in tough times, most people get conservative," he said. "We need a renewed ‘pioneer spirit’."

How Pioneer Spirit Works In Games

Previous generations of developers were scientists, Warren said, noting early designers such as Ralph Baer. Next came the explorers -- early creatives such as Shigeru Miyamoto and Richard Garriott -- and then the settlers, developers such as Blizzard and Rockstar.

Considering himself part of the "settlers" group of developers from his time at Looking Glass, Spector said that this new, post-settling "pioneer" generation were the continuation of a story similar to that of the new world.

"If Richard Garriott is the person who discovered New York, then I'm like the first mayor of the city, the person who made it a place people wanted to live. The pioneers are the people leaving these settled areas to find the new frontiers."

"The most interesting thing to me,is that these guys in reinterpreting genres are not so much reinventing as turning things around completely," he continued, reasoning that this was a result of this new category of developers often being university educated and that many of them were women --"Thank god," he praised.

Considering a list of recent standout titles like Flow, Braid, Portal and Everyday Shooter, Spector said, "I don't know how anybody can look at the list on that screen and not feel positive about our future."

And this kind of creativity is infectious: "The amazing thing is that this isn't just independents who have this fever, the big companies do too," he said, referencing titles including LittleBigPlanet and Rock Band.

"Am I the only one to be excited to see EA create five new IPs this year? Rock on, EA!" he pronounced, to a chorus of applause.

The Road To Greatness Is Long

With all of this good news, Spector’s call to a renewed pioneer spirit could have seemed untimely, but he argued that "we’re not done yet."

"We're barely anywhere figuring out this medium. We don't just create commodities; we build communities and we create cultures. Sadly, to me, the cultures we have largely created are ‘nerd’ cultures."

Not trying to be offensive, Spector claimed a "card-carrying, D&D playing nerd heritage" but demanded an industry that offers more than just "adrenaline-fueled fantasies."

"How many games are you going to work on in your career?" he asked the audience. "If you're lucky you'll be a key creative force on some of them, so what are you going to offer the gamers that play your game? Hopefully something more than ‘I killed another alien today.’"

With this in mind, Spector began to reel of a list of areas where gaming remained deficient. These ranged from a need to put players more in control of stories, through better virtual characters ("usually the only interesting character is the one holding the controller!"), and the feeling that most conversation systems had barely moved on from the "Name, Job, Bye" system used in the early Ultima titles.

Spector urged: "We need to create better tools to offer more than just the fantasy of pulling a trigger."

In addition, developers needed to think of their game spaces as worlds rather than simply sets. "We create movie sets because it’s easier for us, not because it’s better for the player. If we claim we’re about interactivity, let’s prove it." However, he was quick to note that this did not mean all games had to be sandboxes.

The Team's The Thing

Of course, game developers need ways to foster this kind of innovation, and in Spector’s mind, working with a like-minded team was key.

He recalled: "The day before we went beta on System Shock, all of a sudden the (in-game) security cameras were tracking the player as they walked around. I screamed at the team ‘how can you add something like that this late in the game?’ but as I went into my office, I was ecstatic. You want your team to do things like that, to take chances and work hard on making the game the best it can be within a defined vision."

To ensure this, Spector recommended small teams ("You don't need much structure, communication is easier") that designers be open to change ("you have to believe in your goals, but you can't be married to a particular way of achieving those goals") and to learn to "fail often, but fail quickly."

"Having the time to focus and fix what is wrong is important. I used to call alpha stage ‘the game is finished but it sucks,’ and that is so wrong."

Concluding, Spector reiterated his points one last time: "Publishers, don't get conservative. If you're an independent developer, swing for the fences -- I see too many independents whose works look like portfolio pieces -- and if you work for an established developer, be an agent for change.... We can never satisfied with the status quo."

Continue reading The Digital Continuum: Fantasy's upcoming vacation

The Digital Continuum: Fantasy's upcoming vacation originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 15 Nov 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember when Ubisoft was "the Rayman company"? It doesn't seem that like long ago, but now the French publisher is a powerhouse.

Ubisoft has enjoyed extraordinary growth over recent years thanks to successful "hardcore" properties like Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia, Far Cry, Splinter Cell and other Tom Clancy games. The company is also increasingly targeting the burgeoning "casual" market and even has its sights on film and television production.

Alain Corre, Ubisoft's executive director for Europe, the Middle East and Asia, was due to visit Australia last month and have a chat to Screen Play. His trip unfortunately had to be cancelled at the last minute because of the global financial crisis, but Alain was kind enough to ring me from Paris for the interview below.

The interview today covers topics like the impact of the financial crisis, Ubisoft's growth, the merger of Activision and Vivendi, holes in Ubisoft's portfolio, the future of the PC, packed Christmas release schedules, the casual market and gender stereotypes.

Part two of the comprehensive interview to be published on Monday explores the current state of the games industry, Ubisoft's support of the Wii console, Wii's MotionPlus accessory, Ubisoft's interest in an Australian development studio, tax breaks and Ubisoft's ambitions in the movie business.

Sorry that you couldn't come and visit us this week.

Yeah, I know. But because of the financial turmoil and all the products we are releasing and all the unknowns about the situation, my boss told me that maybe it would be better to be close by just in case so we can react quickly. I said 'yes, maybe you're right'.

So the crisis is a little unnerving for Ubisoft?

No, not really, but we have never experienced this kind of situation. For the moment our market is reacting well, we haven't seen a decrease in terms of the sales of machines or software in the past few weeks. Even in the UK, which is the number one market here in Europe, sales of the 360 have exploded in the last three weeks following the price decrease. And the sales of Wii and DS are huge, even PS3 is climbing up despite the high price of 399 Euros.

So for the moment the machines are still going on selling very well and we know that when the machines sell, after that follows the software. We don't know to what extent this crisis will impact our industry, but what we think is that interactive entertainment is rather cheap if you compare it with other entertainment. When you buy a game at 50 Euros or 50 dollars, you have 15 or 20 hours of entertainment, which you can enjoy with the family at home, and if you compare with holidays or restaurants or the cinema, it's relatively cheap. For the moment we don't see an effect. But perhaps it will have an effect on the number of games people will buy, maybe they will buy one game less compared to what they would have bought. But we're not sure, for the moment we are confident.

Why do you think Ubisoft has been able to grow so rapidly over the past decade?

We took vitamins. (laughs) I think our vitamins have been a good anticipation on the trends and the next platforms. We decided to invest quite early on the Wii, ahead of everybody, early on the DS, and that helped us to where we are today. Also we are trying to understand and feel the right tendencies of trends coming in the next couple of years with the creations we have. So far we have had a good nose.

Also, the recruitment of talent that we have through the company in the studios and in marketing. On the studio side I think we have been able to grow sizeable studios with a lot of talent, and we have been able to retain experienced talent to make more great games. This pool of talent is now proving we can develop a lot of great games in different genres. So all those things add up to our success today.

Is it your explicit goal to be number one in terms of sales in all markets around the world? Or are you happy if you just make quality games that can entertain?

I think that if we go on creating quality games, games that are innovative, and if we please the end user, then we will have great success. If we can please more and more consumers then naturally we will get amongst the top publishers but it's really based on what products we can produce. When you have a AAA or mega-hit, then you quickly produce millions of extra players and that brings you good revenue and profit and helps you to climb into the top publishers. But it comes down to the games first and how we can execute well.

Does Activision Blizzard represent a bigger threat to Ubisoft than they did as separate entities? Is there any value in Ubisoft looking for a similar merger, such as Take 2 now that EA seems to have given up?

Activision Blizzard existed before as individual companies so they were competitors to us. Whether they are combined or not for us, it is much the same. Activision is still the one competitor that is in all the fields we are in. Now they have added Blizzard, who is dedicated to WoW and also some other PC products. So really, we haven't seen any change. As a combined company they have bigger revenues so if we compare they are stronger than they used to be compared to us in terms of globalised revenue, but in terms of competition it is the same as it used to be.

For us we have never had the spirit to acquire big companies. We have always preferred organic growth rather than the addition of another big company, which has its drawbacks. To mix two cultures, to merge dedicated services from two companies together takes management time and can modify the culture and the focus. What we know is our business is moving so fast that you really need to have focus on what you need to do and your products and so on. We really need the energy of our top managers around the world to focus on what they need to do.

Do you think there are any holes in your portfolio at present that you need to address?

Oh yes, there are always holes fortunately, which means there is potential for growth. We are not touching the MMO (massively multiplayer online games) for the moment because it is a place where you have really big guys and it requires a lot of investment and risk. So for now we have not touched that field, although we are bring online games, web-based games soon on the market. We have Heroes of Might and Magic coming and we will try to grab some consumers in that field. We were also not in the strategy genre, but now we are with Tom Clancy's EndWar. It's the first action strategy game we're bringing to console, so we are trying to crack this genre. We are now in racing because we have acquired Driver, and the team behind it. We are working on a great driving game that will be out in the coming months. It's a genre which is important, this category represents quite a solid percentage of the worldwide business and we want to be a part of it. We are also launching an extreme sports game with Shaun White. We are not at all in the sports segment, we have always said that it was impossible for us to crack into this segment. Shaun White and the approach we have taken with snowboarding is unique and we hope that if this one works we will develop more sports games.

We are (also) trying to capitalise on what we know how to do. FPS (first-person shooters) - Far Cry 2 has done extremely well in Australia, so thank you to your country and to your consumers who chose to play Far Cry 2. We also have the Clancy games, Rainbow Six Vegas, Ghost Recon, and we will have new iterations in years to come. So we are strong on FPS and want to continue being strong there. We are good also in action adventure, Prince of Persia is coming in a month and we want also to go on bringing something new to this genre. We are good also in platform games or family games, we have another Rayman coming and we have new Rabbids games. These three genres or segments that we have built our company on we are going to continue to try to continue to bring better quality products on those platforms. And as you say, we are trying to take risks on some new genres to fill the holes we have.

Does Ubisoft still believe in the future of the PC as a gaming platform?

Yes, PCs are in every home. We think that the PC with the technology will always please a large number of gamers. You can upgrade your PC every six months and for us as a developer we can create products based on these new technologies or video cards or new possibilities that the technology is offering, we can bring something additional, something new that is not possible on the console side because the consoles are to a certain extent 'frozen' when they are out. So we still believe the PC has a role to play.

We consider the PC has a role to play if we can change the business model into a service market. As you know, consumers today are copying a lot, and that's a drawback when you publish a PC game. If we can service these customers with extra content or help via an online account that they would have when they buy a game then they would find that it is better to buy a game with all the service behind it instead of taking a game off the internet. I think the future of PC goes to more personalisation for our relationship between us as creators and the consumers. If we can do that and bring them something additional that they like, if we can give them more fun in the gameplay by extra services, then we are going to transform the PC business into something more positive for the future.

We're coming up to Christmas, your most important sales period. But if I take you back to Christmas five years ago, Ubisoft had some great games such as Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, XIII and Beyond Good and Evil which all didn't enjoy the sales they deserved. What did you learn from that experience?

Actually, we learned something, that the consumers are the ones who decide. You can have a great idea or a great product, but if it's not what the consumers like then you have worked just for the glory. So what we have done post this period, which has been a bit traumatic, but positive if you consider the growth of the company, is that we are now including a lot of consumer testing at every level of our development process. We are checking in advance of what kind of feel the consumers would like and gameplay-wise we are analysing everything, checking if what we are doing is too complicated, too hard for the public, if it is innovative enough, and so on. That's something that we have learned.

Beyond Good and Evil is still considered as one of the more original products released in the past few years and it also brought us a relationship with Peter Jackson for King Kong. For Peter Jackson it was his most favourite game and when we were pitching the King Kong license he said he wanted to work with the people who created this product. So that was a benefit. And when you consider the Prince of Persia franchise, the quality of that product and the graphics impressed a lot of the community and the media, and we managed to create a franchise even though the sales were not at the level we were expecting. What we said also was that yes, yes, we would listen to consumers, but also quality always pays off. It is our motto, we have to do great quality, always better quality, this is the way we will be able to seduce more people and create more brands.

Did you also learn anything about the timing of your releases? I remember thinking at the time that those titles struggled because there was so much competition that Christmas. Is Ubisoft and the rest of the industry still too fixated on releasing titles at Christmas, often to their detriment given the amount of competition on the market? New titles particularly seem to struggle to find their feet at Christmas.

Christmas is a particularly buoyant market. Sixty per cent of the business for the year is done between October and January.

Is that simply self-fulfilling though? It's currently when most of the big titles of the year are released...

It's true, you're right. We're trying to have releases in every quarter during the year, not only at Christmas. You're right, it is very crowded so the competition between the products is harsh. We released Vegas 2 back in March, we released Brothers in Arms in September, we're trying to bring some AAAs at different periods. But when you have a blockbuster then you want to capture the consumer frenzy. If you can anticipate what people want and be in the Top 10 at Christmas then you sell much more than if you release your product at a different period. But you have to be in the Top 10, that's really the challenge.

On the other side, we have a different market, the casual market, and this market is consuming at different periods. Of course, kids and girls, women, who are buying DS games shop at Christmas, but they are also shopping throughout the year. In Europe now at the mid-term holiday they are buying a lot of DS and Wii games. Just before summer in June kids are also buying a lot of DS and Wii games, also at Easter. So we are releasing Imagine titles and pet games every month, not just at Christmas.

Speaking of your casual titles, Ubisoft seems to have a very deliberate policy of making separate games for the "casual" and "hardcore" audiences. Should the focus instead just be on making fun and accessible games that appeal to everyone?

Absolutely. Fun is the number one target. I've been speaking about quality, but if you don't bring fun to the consumer then the game developer has failed. What we are trying to do is adapt to our consumers who are all different and who all have different tastes. You can't have the same way of developing a game for someone who is eight years old, an eight-year-old girl, as 20-year-old men. You have to have different gameplay tactics and ambition when you are doing a hardcore game or a game for eight-year-olds on DS. But ultimately, fun remains at the centre of it.

We need to bring people fun moments, something positive, whether on the DS for eight-year-olds or for hardcore gamers. We are trying to anticipate and adapt to the tastes, and again there is a lot of testing with consumers ahead of and during the process of development. We have to produce fun for consumers if we want our market to go on growing and to go on seducing more and more people. It's really what is at the centre of Ubisoft and our market.

Some of my readers have been critical of the Imagine series - that they seem to overly rely on sexist stereotypes, with the girls range covering topics like fashion, cooking and caring for babies and pets, while the boys range has typically masculine tasks. Do you think the criticism is fair?

Well, actually we are trying to adapt to the tastes of consumers and they are all different. We are making a lot of studies on what they like, what they want to play, what topics they would want to see in a game. All these topics are brought up before we start to create a game. We are not that different from, for example, feminine magazines, who look at similar topics.

What we are trying to bring the girls is fun and entertainment, and we have noticed that the girls were liking decorating their room or their home, so we are making a game called Imagine Decorating with which they would be able to reshuffle the rooms, the home, and have fun with that. That is based on the studies we have done with eight to 10-year-old girls. We have tried to capture the essence of what they wanted and transfer that into a fun game that they can share with their friends. I think the tastes are different and you have to adapt to the tastes of that person.

How difficult is it to make games that girls are interested in that don't rely on overly "pink" stereotypes?

We have a vast array of games for girls. From decoration, to babysitting, to gymnastics and horseriding. There are a vast array, which represents different types of girls, We're trying to adapt to the tastes of different girls. There is a vast array of topics we're trying to cover, some are working better than others. Last year we did extremely well with Imagine Babysitting, also with Imagine Fashion Designer, and this year we have another one called Imagine Teacher and it seems that the girls are loving it. We also have My Secret Diary where the girls can write in a secret book and hide what they write, or share just a bit with their friends on wi-fi.

We're trying to understand what they do, what they think, what they want, and we are listening to the girls and asking them what they think. I've got two at home, I ask them what they think and if they say 'Dad, this game is just awful, I don't want to play that!' I say, 'Thank you very much.' You know kids, they are very straight and very honest. If they like it, they say 'great', if they don't, you also know where you stand.

Presenting Branching Dialogue, a weekly, wordy and often worryingly pedantic discussion of video game genres, trends and err ... stuff I didn't think to put in this introductory line.

Continue reading Branching Dialogue: Wild file preservation (and other Far Cry 2 stuff)

Branching Dialogue: Wild file preservation (and other Far Cry 2 stuff) originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It's a gorgeous noir-ish take on the Oz myth which reveals what a lot of people don't realize: that the sometimes formulaic 'casual game' biz is getting increasingly sophisticated and intriguing in places, even for the core/artistic game geeks among us. Golden age adventure game return now, plz.

To those links:

OXM vs. XNA | OXM ONLINE
The lovely OXM folks try - and fail - to make an XNA game. This is why we need more 'average person' accessible game creation tools, of course.

Format Magazine interviews indie Flash geeks PixelJam
Part of a video game issue reprinted on their site that looks good - via Phantom Leap.

Play This Thing! explores the work of South American indie Tembac
'Coming straight out of Buenos Aires, another indie auteur by the name of Agustin Fernandez a.k.a. "Tembac". Agustin's work encompasses genres, where he tends to take established mechanics and completely reconstructs the dynamic into a new mold.'

Guest blog featuring Dave Gilbert - PlayFirst Grapevine
Nice, Dave 'The Shivah' Gilbert's new adventure game, 'Emerald City Confidential' for PlayFirst, revealed, and it's a noir Wizard Of Oz adventure title, complete awesome: 'I had just watched The Maltese Falcon for the first time, and I wondered what the Scarecrow would have been like if he was played by Peter Lorre."

Raph’s Website » UGC and IP in a cloning world
'If UGC really does succeed in democratizing game creation to the extent that many of us hope, we’re going to have to reach an accomodation with this question. When people learn and create Tetris within LittleBigPlanet, should Sony claim ownership?'

Sex & Games: Artmunk's Velvet Express Released
Ah yeah, this is from the LoveChess guys, they sent me a postcard about it but I forgot to mention. It's very odd and European - the <a href="http://www.thevelvetexpress.com/">official site</a> is incredibly NSFW, too.

Game (demo) recommendaton: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm
Even if you don't watch Naruto (which I don't), check out the PS3 demo of this CyberConnect 2 developed title - really sharp anime cel-shaded art and an interesting free-range fighting game style set it apart from your average anime license.

Siliconera » Yaris Not Yanked From Xbox Live, It Expired
'Yaris was a free brand supported advergame “available for download in the U.S. and Canada for one full year” according to a Microsoft press release announcing the game.' Aha, thanks for someone for spotting this, was trying to work out what happened.

The Video Game Atlas - Wii Maps - MegaMan 9
Neat to see all the art laid out like that - slight spoilers, I guess! Shame the site doesn't have an RSS for keeping up...

T=Machine » Micro-micro-payments via electricity bill
'A new startup has appeared that essentially charges people a per-second subscription to play games that is added to their electricity bill.'

A couple months ago we got word that Matt Hazard had returned to gaming. I will admit that even we here at TVGB, where every one of us knows everything ever about gaming, asked around to each other if they had ever heard of this supposedly legendary gaming character — it was only for a second, I swear. Of course after all confirmations were in we came to the conclusion that D3 had simply come up with a clever marketing scheme to get attention for their next game. Little did we know, though some of us guessed, that the game itself would also be a satirical send up of gaming featuring Matt Hazard returning to his fictional prime. Also God is in it.

The game takes on a bit of a metaphysical edge to it when Hazard, who thinks he’s starring in his comeback, finds out that the game is actually being controlled by someone else and he has to survive to find out who. Of course we’re controlling Matt so there’s that level to it also. Plus the game designers (the real ones) are controlling stuff. It might be a bit confusing as meta stuff often is, but luckily we got a chance to talk with Sam Guilloud of D3 and figure out the many layers of Matt Hazard. Not to mention how the game is going to play, making sure it’s funny and how much of a slut Lara Croft is.

Matthew Razak (TVGB): Despite having one of the funniest game trailers ever and the awesome marketing campaign leading up to the announcement of the game, we know very little about it. Tell us something we don’t know that you think is going to make this game stand out from the crowd.

Sam Guilloud (SG): The storyline and supporting characters hands down. It’s a fantastic concept that hasn’t really been treated properly inside or outside a video game before. We’ve created a fantastic cast of characters inspired by video game genres from across the board that everyone will get excited about seeing.

TVGB: How did the surprisingly original idea for Matt Hazard come about? Was it hard to get the ball rolling since it’s clearly not that common of an angle to take towards gaming and also a new IP?

SG: Movie parodies have been around forever, but it’s rarely ever explored in video games. Or at least not as overtly as we’re doing it. Gamers love the idea of new IPs but more of them tend to go the safer route and buy sequels to games and franchises they already know. As we sat down to think about what this new game would look like and how we could sell it to an audience that has a reputation for being loyal to brands that have been around forever, we thought why not create an original “sequel” to a franchise that never existed. That way you’re getting the best of both worlds - An original IP with the safety of a franchise.

TVGB: The last truly great satirical game we can think of was Conker’s Bad Fur Day (maybe Postal, but not really). Why do you think satire isn’t approached much in gaming and why did you decide to tackle it?

SG: I think the simple truth is that comedy is hard in any medium. When it’s done right, it’s done right. But when it’s done wrong it can be disastrous and bring everything around it down with it. We didn’t set out to make a funny game. We were thinking of different concepts and the more we fleshed this one out the funnier it got. Everyone started throwing out ideas of what Matt Hazard would have been like in the 80’s. How his games would have played. What types of enemies he would have fought and it all just snowballed from there.

TVGB: Were all those previous games just clever PR or are they going to be working into the concept of the game?

SG: Blowing it out the way we did was clever PR, but a big part of any character is his backstory and Matt’s is really connected to all the games he’s been in. They’ll be a key part of the storyline in the game as well as influence the enemies, the babes, and his allies that show up. And to top it off there’s even more clever marketing and PR to come. We haven’t even scratched the surface yet.

TVGB: Matt Hazard seems to be a parody of videogame characters who come back to claim their former glory. Is there any chance we’ll see some spoofs of popular game characters in the game and along with this will we be able to recognize other famous game characters in Matt’s personality or appearance? We can see a resemblance to Duke Nukem, but is there more than that to it?

SG: Absolutely. It wouldn’t be much of an official parody of the industry if we didn’t reference as many other game characters as possible. You might see some mustachioed craftsmen wearing overalls, some shiny green-suited space marines, some sneaky stealth operators in black bodysuits…. I’ve already said too much.

TVGB: Writing is clearly going to be hugely important in a game like this, what are you doing to make sure it’s up to snuff?

SG: Dave Ellis has written a fantastic script that really takes the whole concept to the next level. He won a Writer’s Guild Award last year for Dead Head Fred and comedy is one of his key fortes. Plus he’s also a lifelong gamer so he knows exactly where to hit the right punches.

TVGB: Will the game create an open world for exploring or will we be running around in more linear levels?

SG: I like to think of it more as a cinematic experience. Gamers tend to do their own things in open world environments rather than dive into the storyline and for us that’s where we think all the enjoyment for this game is.

TVGB: Are we going to be in a third person, 3D world the entire time or does the fact that Matt is battling many of his “older” opponents mean we might be getting a wide variety of game types?

SG: You will definitely be in a 3rd person 3D world, but you’ll see some very interesting ways in how we’ve incorporated some of Matt’s older enemies that we think are cool.

TVGB: “Hack effects” sound interesting, but we’d love more detail on them. Does this mean that the level can suddenly change at any moment or will they be more subtle changes?

SG: Yes, both. At first you’ll think you’re going through a run-of-the mill warehouse/box factory that you’ve seen a thousand times before in every other game, but our twist on it is that the level gets completely changed on the fly, and all of a sudden you’re in the middle of an entirely different game fighting enemies that don’t fit in the context at all. Other times more subtle things like weapons, characters, and enemies will be “hacked” in.

TVGB: Cover systems don’t always work perfectly and it can get a bit annoying. What are you doing to avoid some of the more common issues with a duck and cover system? In line with this, will the game play duck and cover or run and gun?

SG: A little bit of both. The developer has definitely pinpointed the frustrations of the duck-and-cover mechanics and has an ingenious fix that we think will become the norm in cover games going forward. We’ll have more details on it soon, but the basic gist of it is that the annoying part of moving between cover will be much simpler than it has been in other games.

TVGB: Clearly we’ll be getting a wide variety of enemies in this game. You guys have any favorites you’re looking forward to people checking out?

SG: I think when players first see the soldiers of the Wafferthin, they’ll pixilate their pants. It’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in a video game.

TVGB: The general humor and design behind the advertising for Matt Hazard are probably most appreciated by gamers who’ve been around for a while. Do you have any fear of not reaching a wide enough audience?

SG: There’s really enough humor in Eat Lead beyond gaming that reaches into pop culture to satisfy a really wide audience. The marketing targeted core experienced gamers at first since they’re the ones who will be the most excited by the concept. As we start to reveal more about the actual game, the audience will widen with interest in the VO talent, the graphics, the cover system, and just the general fact that this will look different than any other game out there.

TVGB: Eat Lead will be the first game to come out that uses Vicious Engine 2. What would you say is the most notable thing the game does with it?

SG: Dynamic lighting gives the entire game (characters and environments) a more realistic and accurate look and provides the player the ability to see dynamic shadows, etc. And by having our game engine be multi core we can increase the number of enemies, objects, textures and effects while also having fantastic lighting, physics and AI processes running well simultaneously.

TVGB: Now for the real serious questions. Matt Hazard claims he got to know a certain raider of tombs biblically. I think every gamer wants to know how that was. Maybe you could ask him?

SG: Please, that chick has been around the block and back more times than I can count. Who hasn’t had a piece of her? Matt just likes to claim that he was the first.

TVGB: Jumping off the subject of dating, Luke Walker, one of our writers would like to know if Matt is single. Not for himself of course, but just to get the information out there for all the ladies.

SG: He’s certainly had his share of damsels in distress in the past and quite a few resurface in the game. Whether or not any of them are long term is something Matt keeps to himself. But ladies, his number is 867-5309 but if for some reason that number becomes disconnected be sure to add Matt as a Facebook friend as he is starting to dabble in the internet dating world.

RPG fans could be forgiven for feeling a little hard-done by the PS3. Despite the original promises of Final Fantasy exclusivity and all that jazz, the console has struggled to meet expectations. Well, two years in and yet not a moment too soon Valkyria Chronicles steps onto the stage with what is perhaps the most compelling argument to fans of the genre to stick with Sony’s machine.

The most striking thing about this title at the offset is its setting. While the game does, like all good JRPGs, have anime at the center of its beating heart, it finds itself set within a post-industrial world that roughly mirrors the image of Europe at the end of the Second World War. Watching the game’s opening sequence it is impossible not to draw almost clumsy comparisons between historical Europe and the fictional land of “Europa”.

This slapdash allegory serves a purpose however, too many RPGs set in expansive fictional worlds end up bogged down in the process of explaining that world and the result the gameplay suffers. By taking a loose picture of historical Europe, Valkyria Chronicles lets players fill in the historical context themselves while the game focuses on character and gameplay development. In terms of the plot: an evil empire (literally called “The Empire” as though that wasn’t a big enough cliché) has taken it upon itself to expand its dominion from a fictional representation of the USSR into a collection of loosely united democracies which we would know as the rest of Europe. The story follows Lieutenant Welkin Gunther and his squad as they lead the resistance against the empire and its nefarious plot.

The second thing which hits like a splash of cold watercolour to the face are the visuals. Built on the CANVAS engine, at first the game cannot help but look like another Okami wannabe. However, half an hour in you’ll find yourself gawping in wonder at the stunning character movement and masterfully animated cut scenes. Gazing into the game’s pallid beauty, I found it hard to reason why I had been so dismissive of it in the first instance. This illustrative aesthetic really sobers the mood and reminds us that this isn’t some psychedelic anime-inspired fantasy but a genuinely serious attempt at telling a genuinely serious story.

The vast majority of Valkyria Chronicles operates through a “Book Mode”. This basically acts as a visual framework out of which the player can select missions, cut scenes, settings and literally everything else they could possibly think of. This is a mixed blessing, however. There is no world for you to freely roam around in and all character interaction/development goes on within the many many long cut scenes. As such, huge swathes of time are spent listening to characters waffle on about sometimes the most trivial things. This greatly undermines some of the more dramatic and entertaining cinematic moments and furthermore means that all time spent playing is done within the very narrow framework of the game’s battle mode. Comfortingly, the battles can be long winded and engaging enough to help the player forget that after it there will be another lifetime of cut scenes and dialog before the next piece of action.

At the end of the day, this is an efficient way of managing the game and it makes revisiting earlier events incredibly easy, however it completely disjoints the gameplay and story to the point where it feels less like one complete experience and more like an anime movie running alongside a strategy game.

Speaking of strategy, when I finally got involved in my first battle I was surprised to find the game definitely places its emphasis on the side of strategy than that of traditional RPG gameplay. The game lands in an interesting space between turn-based and real-time strategy. While your characters have fixed movement, actions, HP and AP there is a live element of danger from other enemies as the player moves each character around the battlefield. Combined with the tension of making every footstep count, this transforms the usually dull “movement phase” into something completely different and infinitely more engaging.

Aside from the main character and his ragtag group of friends, the player is put in charge of selecting, managing and maintaining a squad of 20 other fighters. Characters are split into a number of classes — including Scout, Shocktrooper, Lancer, Sniper and Engineer – each with their own strengths, weaknesses and role to play on the battlefield. Each individual character from the 30-something you have to pick from has their own name, voice and personality. While superficial, this is a lovely little touch. Surprisingly, the personality of each character really does come through in the heat of battle and makes up for a lot of what the cut scene/gameplay disparity cuts out.

Before each battle you will have to select a limited number of fighters from your roster to place into the theatre of combat. Understanding the demands of the battle and paying attention to any hints dropped by NPCs before this stage are critical. In many ways, the outcome of each fight will be determined by exactly who you decide to bring into play. Making the wrong choice and seeing them slaughtered, or having to sub them out mid-battle is a big waste of precious turns.

Using the experience gained from battle, you can choose to level up and outfit your character classes as you see fit. Again, keeping on top of this and thinking strategically is critical. It is in this levelling up functionality that the game harks back to its RPG roots. And, like all RPGs, putting the time in to level up your characters will pay dividends later.

The gameplay is sufficiently deep and the sheer numbers of potential approaches to a given situation mean it has huuuge replay value. Despite being so deep it is important to remember that this game is always played within a visually stunning environment, making even the most drudging and long-winded battles a sheer delight to play through. Valkyria Chronicles features a story that, while relying heavily on 20^th century history in its premise, manages to spiral off on its own tangent into what very quickly becomes a wonderfully rounded epic and definitely the best reason I’ve seen yet for RPG fans to maintain faith in the PlayStation 3.

+

• Absolutely stunning visuals and gorgeous art direction
• Wonderfully developed characters and plot
• Gameplay elegantly merges the RPG and Strategy genres

-

• “Book Mode” disconnects story from gameplay
• Comparison between real world Europe and fictional “Europa” a little too obvious
• Strategic elements of the game very unforgiving and often vague.

• 1UP (A-): "To all the Rare-haters out there: Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (the latest in a series that's scarcely been heard from since the Nintendo 64 days, barring a pair of Game Boy Advance spin-offs) puts the ailing developer on the road back to relevancy. Nuts & Bolts' single-player structure, addictive multiplayer, and intricate vehicle-crafting system handily show that this isn't just another generic cute-n-furry platformer."
• IGN (83/100): "A game that never stopped being fun for me. It's an odd duck that doesn't fit into any conventional game genres and probably isn't right for everybody. Despite its friendly appearance, Nuts & Bolts isn't exactly easy to pick up and play and might be over the head of some small children. There's a lot of depth here and the vehicle creation tools allow you to flex your mind and your fingers at the same time. "
• Eurogamer (70/100): "Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is not a platform game. The game it has become instead demands thoughtful, exciting challenges that inspire the player to pitch in and help get the most out of each level, but it fails to provide them, and even though it's worth persevering with for the occasional hurdles race, egg-and-spoon and a game-world in aptly Rare form, ultimately it's a brilliant shell with a mostly hollow centre. "

Metareview -- Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (360) originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looking at the screens for Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure gives me the type of mixed feelings I can only imagine compare to alcoholics drinking for the first time and realizing they are going to be addicted for life. I think it's the mix of platforming and puzzling that scares me, considering the eighty hours I plowed into Puzzle Quest because of a similar hybrid of genres.

You can peep out a few new screens in the gallery, in addition to the cover which I have posted above and which intrigues me even further despite the fact it's got a casual flavor. Henry is wearing a (magical) bowler hat, holding a sword AND drinking a cup of coffee? What a badass mofo.