The Melancholy of Visual Novels

Here's a feature I wrote on Siliconera a few months ago. I've been trying to give this as much exposure as I can. Much to my surprise, it got a great response, and if you're into a visual novels (or are planning on developing or publishing one), you might want to check it out.

Here's a snippet:

How do you convince the existing game market that visual novels and visual novel adventures are worth looking into?


For the answer to that question, consider this: what if you don’t target the current generation of “gamers” with these products?

[Siliconera: The Melancholy of Visual Novels]

[ADVANCE]

From Fantasy and Magic to Boobies, Giant Axes and Milk Bukkakes: The Story of Queen's Blade

Today, I came across a series of games known as Queen's Blade. We'll get to why it caught my attention in just a bit. I'd never heard of Queen's Blade before, but apparently, it's part of the "visual combat book" genre. Even being a fan of visual novels, I'll admit I'd never heard of this particular genre that Japan has apparently been enjoying for a few years now. A quick look at this site, however, gave me some info on Queen's Blade:

Queen's Blade is called "Visual Book for Duel." It is based on the Lost Worlds Combat Picture Books, the classic game book for duel.


In this game, each player uses one beautiful fighter (for one book) to duel with another player. The combination of each player's choice of offenses and defenses then leads to the character being in a state of, for example, falling down, being wounded, having armor broken, etc (each state has an artistic page in the character book), and the repetition of these decides a winner, by accumulated wounds.

Books? Status effects? Rules? This was all very vague. It sounded a little like Dungeons & Dragons...some sort of table-top RPG. Surely, it couldn't be Japanese by origin?


Unsatisfied, I decided to do some further research. What I came across was Lost Worlds, a series of "game books" created by a person named Alfred Leonardi.


Here's what I found out: a gamebook is somewhat like an RPG rule book which features a "character" meant for combat. Play using these gamebooks requires at least two players and a gamebook for each, ie; a character for each.


Play requires two players and at least two "visual combat books", with each player choosing a character (i.e., a book) from those available. Both players pull their "character sheet" out of their gamebook and hand their respective book to their opponent. Each book lists the moves and abilities for that character in tabular form, so what you're seeing during play is your opponent's character, not yourself.



Quoting Wikipedia, "During each turn or combat phase, players secretly select an action from those shown on their card, possibly influenced by the results of previous turns. Players then simultaneously reveal their intended action, by number, to each other. Using the character sheet to cross-reference their action with that of their opponent, players then turn to a specific entry in the book they are holding in order to determine the results. These effects may include hit point loss (i.e., a wound), as well as any restrictions on the opponent's next move (which is read aloud to them). The first character to reduce their opponent to zero hit points wins."


Funny story: I thought up the exact same game back in Grade 6. My friends and I would play it every free class we had until we finally tired of it in Grade 8.


Coming back to the origins of Queen's Blade, though, the "game book" concept was capitalized on in 2005 by Hobby Japan, the same publisher that translated the third and fourth editions of Dungeons & Dragons for Japan. HJ may as well have stuck with the abbreviated title thing from D&D and named their new series based on the gamebook concept "T&A" for reasons that will become obvious soon enough.



T&A...er, I mean, Queen's Blade...was for the most part a re-skinning of pre-existing character matrices from Lost Worlds. And what a re-skinning it was! Gone were the days of mages and skeletons and trolls and gnomes. Who needed that when you could have the usual harem of scantily clad beauties with torn clothes? Hobby Japan also went and added a variety of pre-existing characters from Japanese media, including Mai Shiranui from King of Fighters and eventually, even added entirely new characters to the mix.

The series grew into a successful franchise, spawning anime spin-offs, dozens of gamebooks and action figures. The only thing it seemed to be missing was a series of videogames.

Of course, that particular issue didn't last very long.


Enter Queen's Blade: Spiral Chaos published by Namco Bandai for the PSP...a crossover of sorts featuring Queen's Blade characters. It is described as a "simulation RPG about the battle of beautiful warriors." With the RPG equivalent of moneyshots in the form of tearing clothes and ecchi pictures...very ecchi pictures...Spiral Chaos features super-deformed female fighters controlled as units in realtime like a strategy RPG. By maneouvering these characters, you can get into one-on-one battles with opponents.

Each character's damage stats are linked to five parts: head, chest, waist, arms and legs. By focusing on a particular part, you can damage it faster and cause the armour or weapon associated with that part to break. Doing this will result in the aforementioned ecchi pictures/cutscenes. For example:













And now you know why Queen's Blade caught my attention. Here are some nice shots of the gameplay to make it look like I wasn't just interested in the pantsu:









Images courtesy of Namco Bandai. Thanks to Laura Hou for translation help. Also, this post is filed under "Hentai" because I didn't know where else to put it.

[ADVANCE]

Impressions: Dragon Ball Z Burst Limit

Dragon Ball Z can be summed up pretty well in a couple lines. Bad guy shows up, he kicks everyone's ass, and then they kick his ass. This formula just works for the series.

However, the topic of discussion here is DBZ Burst Limit. If you like DBZ, you'll love this game. I play my fair share of fighters (primarily Soul Calibur), DBZ games tend to almost always disappoint, regardless of my love for the series. Burst Limit, on the other hand, has a lot going for it.

I played through the single player mode, to unlock all the characters and I had a blast doing it. Throughout the story mode, you get to play as all the humans, Saiyajin, Freeza, and a tonne of other characters. The story focuses on some of the movies -- like Brolly's movie and Bardock's movie -- however; unfortunately, there is no Buu saga, and that's slightly disappointing if you're a fan of the franchise.

To read the full story on what Burst Limit has to offer, hit the jump.



This game has broken the mold of recent anime fighting games. It has no shop, and thank friggin' God for that. The most annoying thing ever in a game, is to unlock something, and then have to have to buy what you just unlocked, especially if you don't have the money to buy said item.

That said, the sheer amount of unlockeable content really stood out here. I got a "Z" rating on my first fight, and unlocked at least 6 different things. This made me feel like i was actually accomplishing something.

Now, most of these unlocks are Drama scenes -- which well get into later -- but there's also the unlock of the character you just played/defeated and also the unlock of the next chapter in the story. Another thing I liked was how easy the controls were to pick up. I brought a friend over and after about 20 minutes, he was dodging and giving me a pretty hard time.

The controls are easy to learn, hard to master, and that's just how I like my fighters.

Access to a moves list really helps; however, it's a good idea to play through the tutorials to get a good understanding of how some of the more complicated moves work. All in all, DBZ Burst Limit has a lot going for it.

Nonetheless, there are a few things that made me cringe. I hate this part, but onto the lesser points of the game.

Drama Scenes: These occur during every fight. They are very cool at first; however, after fighting a friend for the 20th time, and using the same characters, they can get a bit annoying. As far as I could tell, there wasn't a way to turn them off or skip them, as they are an important component of the gameplay.

The other thing that I found annoying was the camera. If you're pushed against a wall, it likes to randomly flip, disorienting you for a bit, which is enough to cost you the match when you're playing the story mode on a harder setting.

Other than those two things, there really wasn't much to nitpick at, this game is a great addition to any collection.By our new "rating" system, the "ratings" are: Pass; Rent; and Buy.

DBZ Burst Limit definitely gets a BUY. This game is one of the best anime fighters in a long time. DBZ fans would do well to consider a purchase.

[ADVANCE]

CGSociety and Ubisoft Discuss Assassin's Creed Development

If you're a 3D artist, chances are you've heard of CGSociety. In recent times, I've had a ton of exposure to the CGSociety community due to my workplace, and I am just incredibly baffled by the sheer amount of talent overflowing their forums.

Modeling artists, texturing artists. MAX, Maya, Zbrush ... CGSociety has a plethora of talent in every corner of the CG art industry.

Recently, the site had a chance to speak to Raphael Lacoste, Art Director of Assassin's Creed and other members of the art team. Originally hired by Ubisoft's Yannis Mallat to work on a Prince of Persia game, Lacoste soon found himself part of a team creating an entirely new concept. The CGSociety feature gives readers a considerable amount of insight into the art direction process for the game.

When we arrive on the edge of a cliff and discover a whole city, the impression is of an incredible open space. When we get lost in small crowded streets full of smoke, we are feeling oppressed. If we climb up on the roofs of the city, the feeling is far more liberating. We are mastering our moves, on the top of the living, breathing world. The contrast is also between the cities and the different quarters of the cities. We tried to make definite variations in the mood, even with edgy and almost monochromatic filters.”

That's just the obligatory quote. If you're a fan of videogame art, and especially if you're a CG artist, this is highly recommended reading.

[CG Society Production Focus - Assassin's Creed]

Picture courtesy of Raphael Lacoste's CGSociety Gallery

[ADVANCE]

Juicy Handheld Rumours: NeoGAF

For those of you who are into hand-held gaming, someone at NeoGAF has some scans from a magazine and translated parts of it to give us some spicy new rumours to speculate on.

1. New version of DS next spring, with a mobile digital TV/radio tuner.
2. Square Enix make a RPG for DS with Shonen JUMP characters.
3. [Dragon Quest 9] also available for PSP.

New DS? That's understandable. It's the best selling gaming device of all time. I remember how many people laughed at Nintendo for even the thinking of creating something like the DS, especially since it would cut into the sales of their, at the time, best selling Game Boy Advance even if the hand-held was a winner -- which of course, it turned out to be. It's clear that Nintendo isn't by any means, stupid. If they think this will help sales of their already hot DS then I have no objections to them going to town with whatever crazy additions they want to include in the next SKU.

I'm not so sure about these new features, I'm fairly confident Nintendo will release a new DS SKU soon.

Shonen Jump RPG? Well they did make Mario Basketball so we know they can develop something other than Final Fantasy oriented content. Licensing could pose a problem, but it's no lie that Shonen Jump is popular in America, especially amongst kids. I wonder if it would be an RPG similar to Super Mario RPG.

The probability for this game to be made is high. Square-Enix is big into the anime industry so I don't see why they wouldn't make this game. Whether or not it will come state-side is a bit to early to call, but it's not impossible.

Dragon Quest IX on the PSP? If you've already forgotten, this game is supposed to be a DS exclusive. Square-Enix loves all gaming platforms, so I wouldn't blame them if they did bring Dragon Quest IX on over to the PSP, especially since all the recent prequels to IX have been on a Sony system. When Square does make a game exclusive, it usually stays exclusive -- at least for a few years. So even if Dragon Quest IX does remain exclusive to Nintendo for now, I wouldn't be surprised if it's ported over to PSP a year or two later.

Remember folks, these are all rumours. They could be all be true, they could all be false. We'll just have to wait and see.



[Source: NeoGAF]

[ADVANCE]

Capcom To PS3 Owners: Look Over Yonder, to Next Week!

Looks like my hopes might not end up getting shattered just this once. It seems that, regardless of all their Xbox 360 support and increasing Wii support, Capcom is still planning on backing the PS3 as well.

1P Start's forum recon unit brings us this bit of intelligence: A forum user by the name of "Vampire_Saviour" posted the following message on Capcom's message boards:

Capcom is losing fans. They obviously don’t care for their PS3-owner fans.

In response to which, Capcom's ever-vigilant and forum-savvy Senior Director of Strategic Planning & Research, Christian Svensson replied:

Let’s see how they feel at the end of next week about us.

Intriguing, no? Capcom's big announcements are due on the 15th. What could possibly make up for the betrayal that was Devil May Cry 4?

[ADVANCE]

Soul Calibur 4 Gameplay Detailed

Hello! Chuu here, the newest addition to FWA. I'll mostly be here giving Ishaan a hard time, and flooding this place with anime impressions, as the fall season is about to start. However, for today, we're going to take a closer look at one of my favourite game series. I just hope you aren't sick of it from Arro, because, here comes some more info for the Soul series.


Okay, if you've played Soul Calibur 3, you know how much fun it was to make your own character. Well, that's back, but with a twist.

"As previously announced, the character creation mode that was such a hit in Soul Calibur III will work online in this version, Sasaki said. And you'll actually be able to affect the way the character plays, not just the way he looks, with your choices. How exactly that will work, though, is still a secret."

This makes me extremely happy; we don't know how it works yet, but the ability to make your custom character fight in a custom manner? That's attractive ... very attractive.

One other new addition to Soul Calibur 4 is breakable terrain. I, for one, am saddened by this feature. One of the things I loved about the series was it's unbreakable terrain and because I'm goddamned unlucky when I'm around edges be it in games or real life.

"Another addition to the series is that there will now be some solid objects, some breakable, in and around the perimeter of the gameplay field. Sasaki explained that there might be an object on the edge of the field that, if broken with enough force, will reveal an area that you can push your opponent out of for a Ring Out victory."

There is to be a bunch of new characters as well, one being Hilde, who is the first female character to be fully covered in medieval armor, as well as the first character to wield two completely different weapons, namely a long spear and a short sword. This should lead to the ability to fight up close and personal as well as at range as well as any other character can.

Well that's it for now. I cannot wait for this game to come out. Oh, and if you didn't already know, it's for PS3 and XBox 360.

Original source: Wired

[ADVANCE]

TGS 2007: Soul Calibur 4 Trailer

MIIIIIITSUUUUUUUUURUUUUUUUUUUGIIIIIIIII!

Sorry, I feel obligated to say that every time the topic of Soul Calibur comes up.

We've seen some of this before, but now, with a much more cinematic perspective. Yes, my favorite fighter is Misturugi and he looks and awesome as ever. Taki has a few shots. Ivy thankfully had little screen time. Soul Calibur poster boy, Sigfried, gets angry and emo and then turns into Nightmare. One of the new characters, Hilde, gets some screen time. I'm actually very intrigued to see how a spear+sword combo fighter will play out.

I do find it strange that Hilde looks so oriental for someone with the last name Von Krone. Perhaps she was adopted. I'm not knocking on anyone or anything, I just thought it was peculiar.

[ADVANCE]

TGS 2007: Last Remnant Trailer

Tokyo Game Show is upon us, so expect some updates to games that we at FWA have been keeping our eye on.

To kick things off, first we have a trailer for Square-Enix's cross-continental RPG, The Last Remnant. If you are confused by my statement, essentially, Square is trying to make an RPG that appeals to both RPG fans in Japan and America/Europe. Japanese RPGs seem to carry some sort of a stigma in the eyes of many main-stream gamers. Square is aiming to cure this by including two characters that appeal to both the traditional RPG players, and the more action oriented gameplay favored by gamers in the West.

This is also Square-Enix's first game using the Unreal 3 engine, so I for one, as curious to see what they can pull off. You can catch a glimpse by watching the trailer above which was surprisingly in English. Some of the voice actors sounded familiar. Since the game is catered to both major game markets, I am beginning to wonder if Square will not bother with market localization by including both Japanese and English audio in the game and release the same product worldwide, aside from box-art and manuals.

[ADVANCE]

TGS 2007: Three New Kingdom Hearts in Development

...And they're all for portables. Which is and isn't a surprise for various reasons. Let's look into what exactly the deal is here.

Square Enix is, by now, well known for its attachment to "polymorphic content", which they believe makes their games more accessible (even though games from polymorphic franchises are not necessarily multiplatform). What the company did with Final Fantasy VII is indicative of what they have in mind for the future of Kingdom Hearts.

Not surprising then, that two of the new Kingdom Hearts games are on DS and PSP, and the third is for mobile phones. Sound crazy? You bet. But hey, development times are lower, cheaper and raise (more) funds for Square to invest in the development of their bigger titles for home systems, one of which will undoubtedly be a new Kingdom Hearts game.

More surprising than the fact that all three new games are portable is the fact that Birth by Sleep, the teaser trailer for which is extremely popular among Square fans, is not the next major iteration of the franchise on PS3, but instead, a PSP game. Say the lads from IGN:

On display were trailers for Kingdom Hearts Coded for mobile, Kingdom Hearts 358 / 2 Days for DS, and Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep for PSP. No specific release dates were given for any of the titles, save for a "work in progress" text flashed at the end of each trailer.

Story details were sketchy, but it appears Birth by Sleep will be set in "the distant past," according to text in the trailer. 358 / 2 (called 358 over two), whose title, said Square, will apparently make sense once you play the game, will take place somewhere around the events of Kingdom Hearts 2. Coded appears to be set somewhere during the course of the first KH and its sequel, indicated in the trailer with a line of text reading "time has gone by." The overall timeline is a bit muddled, though, something a Square representative admitted to while we were asking for further explanation.

Coded's gameplay had Sora running around various dungeons filled with floating red and black blocks. During battle it's possible to engage a "debugging" mode to clear away the blocks, but their exact nature and implications with regard to gameplay were not clear. 358 / 2 had a darker thematic element than KH games of the past, with all the characters, including Mickey, draped in flowing black robes. It appeared to support some kind of four player mode, though it just may have been one human player with three AI companions. Birth by Sleep featured an unidentifiable playable character during the gameplay portions of the trailer.

A dark DS game? Interesting. And goddamn it, does this mean I'm going to have to buy a PSP? Because I'm one of the many who watched the Birth by Sleep teaser on loop for hours when it was first released. As usual, don't care about the mobile title. But the DS and PSP ones ... definitely something to keep an eye out for.

[ADVANCE]

More Than Meets the Eye to Assassin's Creed

Upon reading Gamespot's impressions of the game, I really am amazed by Ubisoft's ability to keep something as huge as Assassin's Creed's underlying gameplay under wraps, especially considering the "Ubi-leak" that took place last year, revealing a bunch of concept art from their upcoming titles.

The game, for all intents and purposes, sounds like a unique blend of gameplay
elements from Metroid, Grand Theft Auto and Ubisoft's own Prince of Persia ... some of the best elements from each of those games at that.

What excites me most is the ability to actually live the life of a lone assassin on the run. Sure, GTA is kind of cool in that it allows you to run around, be a dick and not give a rat's rear about consequences ... but putting GTA's free-roaming gameplay into context ... that is truly something. Ubisoft, I applaud you.

It seems like there's a touch of detective work amidst all the extremely gory violence. As important as it is to gut your target in the most gratifying way possible, equally important is the task of actually finding him. To me, that is probably going to be more exciting than crossing swords with many a town guard, to be honest. As I said, in this game, I hope to live the life of an assassin.

But then again, there's that touch of sci-fi to the game's overall presentation (and presumably plot) which keeps you wondering whether or not your assassin life will be quite what you expected it to.

It's a good thing a PC version and a DS version (which I'd feel compelled to check out just to put my curiousity at rest) are in development. They should more than suffice until I manage to pick up a PS3 (Goddamn you, White Knight Story) sometime next year.

It's a bit early to be talking about sequels (or maybe not. maybe it's never too early), but I would love to see Ubisoft use a different setting for each Assassin's Creed game. One in the medieval European era (this first one), one in a Japanese "Edo-era" setting, one perhaps, set in the distant future.

Looking forward to this game hitting retail!

[ADVANCE]

Factor 5's Julian Eggebrecht on Wii Graphics

Once again, Julian proves everything FWA believes about the Wii to be true. In a recent interview with Revogamers, Mr. Eggebrecht spoke his mind on the possible causes for the crappy graphics syndrome on Wii. Revogamers translated the important parts of the interview for our reading pleasure:

- On publishers not taking advantage of the Wii’s power for graphics: “the traditional, more photorealistic route, because there you really have to push it, and they’re really not pushing it. Why not? Hmmm I don’t know, the hardware is very, very easy to understand. Now the problem might be –and it just might be- is that some studios -or some publishers specifically- are discarding the graphical capabilities automatically simply because it is a Wii title and they’re basically telling the developers “look, we won’t pay for any advanced graphics”.”

- On Wii’s “shaders” and possibilities: “If you connect you can get a lot of shader effects which would’ve been on the 360 or the PS3.” (…)”it’s got so much more power compared to the GameCube. If even with the extremely similar shader hardware, the system clockrate is so much higher, you can do so much more advanced things” (…)”in the photorealistic route there’re certain things which the basic structure of the graphics hardware was not meant for and which you have to find really clever tricks to basically make up.

Publishers refusing to pay more for decent-looking graphics? Not surprising. More after the jump, including Factor 5's next possible projects.


Everyone knows I'm a huge fan of Factor 5 developing for the Wii. Luckily, it seems the possibility isn't being ruled out entirely. And considering that Lair hasn't done nearly as well as it should have, the company could do with making some moolah. What better way to do that than work on a polished game on a system you're extremely familiar with?

And then there's that little matter of the Wii already having outsold the 360.

- On porting their old tools (SW engine): “If we would do a Wii version of that, certainly that could be something which somebody could license. (…)” “But I can imagine that there will be several engines coming out, also for the Wii ”

- On casual gaming: “I really hate the current trend of the hardcore people very much getting into this bubble of being very defensive and not wanting the whole casual thing to happen. In the end it’s all one big market we’re, essentially we’re all casual.”

- On F5’s next project: “We’re honestly at this point thinking about several titles in development (…). So might be PS3, might be Wii… we’re totally open to that.”

- On Mario Galaxy: “is so inspired that it seems to be worth the success of Mario 64. (…) “yes, this thing is actually taking advantage, (…) it’s basically doing new graphical things with the hardware”

- On the German and European industry: “now that the consoles are coming back, specially with the Wii selling so extremely well, I think for the first time in many, many years, you actually have a pan-European situation where you can develop quite nicely”

[ADVANCE]

Multi-player Components in Games Attract More People

Multi-player; one of the greatest components ever implemented in video games. At least in my own opinion. Aside from a few single-player oriented franchises I like to play every few years a new game is released, a video game, specifically a first person shooter has probably a ninety-five percent chance of not being bought by me due to a lack of solid multiplayer. That's just me. I view large amounts of solitary gaming where I am playing pre-fabricated opponents with algorithms for brains, as a waste of my time. I love nothing more than hoping on Teamspeak with a bunch of people, splitting into teams, coming up with a strategy and then going at it with the other team. I am sure you well know that not all gamers are like that. But according to Ars Technica, games that do offer the opportunity to play with and against other human players does to a large degree, affect the maximum potential revenue that can be generated.

"Developing and publishing video games is a competitive business, but based on research from Electronic Entertainment Design and Research, there are a few things that can seemingly lead to guaranteed higher sales. That's not to say that there aren't interesting trends to spot, however, such as the critical role online support plays in a game's success.

The study found that by adding online functionality into a game—more specifically the ability to play against or with others—developers can generally double the amount of money your game makes. The finding in the study is more intuitive: high quality games (defined as having a Metacritic score of 90+) can sell up to 531 percent more than the average. So now, the job is clear: make high-quality games, and don't forget the online component. "

I hope reports such as these send a strong message to the industry about the subject. Which is actually ridiculous because this should, and probably is to some extent, a well known fact. Gamers don't want just multiplayer. They want good multiplayer -- fun multiplayer! Not something just added on for the sake of it.

Easier said than done, right? Of course! In many cases, adding multiplayer functionality can decrease the overall quality of a game. This is all constituted by how hard the studio, company, publisher works at it and markets it. People want to make money and the financial aspect that makes these companies run smoothly do tend to get in the way many times. Receiving twice as much revenue is worth the extra time and resources required, but sometimes dilemmas appear and decisions have to be made. That's understandable. In many cases, great multiplayer requires a lot of work. Sometimes developers have to take many steps backwards from their original design to make something that runs smoothly from a technical perspective which may interfere with the gameplay.

As the article said, the online component shouldn't be neglected. Games with a great single-player experience and multi-player aspect are essentially a double threat. It appeals to both types of gamers. I'm sure game developers realize this already, I just hope they take seriously.

[Source: Ars Technica]

[ADVANCE]

Soul Calibur 4: What Happened to Namco's Design Sense?

Soul Calibur is probably my favourite fighting franchise ever. It doesn't suck like Mortal Kombat, it looks a hell of a lot more stylish than Tekken, and well, as nice as they are, the boob physics in Dead or Alive don't really do much for me.

Seriously, though ... the Soul games have always been something Namco has been extremely proud of since the days of Soul Edge. While SC3 wasn't as good as SC2, the updated visuals and tons of unlockable content made up for it. My two favourite characters? Taki and Seung Mi-Na.

While the latter got a nice facelift in Soul Calibur 3, Taki's look (which was at its best in SC2) hasn't always changed for the better.

Case in point: Soul Calibur 4. Hit the jump to see what I mean.


Taki in Soul Calibur 2. Asian, sexy and mean.


Taki in Soul Calibur 3. Cuter. Still asian. Still sexy. Not liking the mouth piece, but not too bad overall.


Taki from the upcoming SoulCalibur Legends. A mix of the SC2 and SC3 styles. Still cute. Still asian.


Taki from Soul Calibur 4. WHAT THE FUCK?

[ADVANCE]

Quakecon Rage!!

Well thanks to a great effort by Shacknews, I lusted over a white text on black live blog of the press conference to end all press conferences (well for me anyway). Yup id hath spoken and it was good. Here are the highlights, go to Shacknews for the feed, I'll update here once I find some more coverage.

Firstly Enemy Territory Quake Wars. Due for October 2nd release in the US, Europe gets much respects and sees Splash Damage pulling their Euro Developer might and representing 4 days earlier on the 28th September. This is great news, "When it's done!" is great for the initial 3-4-5 years of development but as you're tasting the beta and tripping over previews it's good to get that date out there. Remember pre-orders score name reservation codes and some addition blag in the box.

RTCW2 or Wolfenstein 2 was mentioned but was lacking in video, screens and actually much detail . A big highlight, and really the only announcement as far as the game was the news the Threewave are involved in the online portion of the game, along with the original developers of RTCW online, Nerve Software. This is great news as both developers have a proven track record of providing a consistent and fun online experience. Single player details however were non existent with Raven still helming he single player portion of the game, instead news that there is to be a Wolfenstein movie in the pipeline helmed by Roger Avary was handed out, they didn't announce The Rock was going to be in the film, guess we can't say it'll be another sucky game movie just yet. :)

The DS saw a lot of love from the Carmack family with John's wife, Katherine, showing off Orcs and Elves. John also covered his ground up philosophy demonstrating how they build IP from a low platform and add on features rather than build to the top end and strip down on features. It's an interesting design philosophy for sure, I hope he pulls it off because it'll mean we see a lot more id stuff on phones, DS and Wii, with the PC, 360 and PS3 talking the ideas a lot further over time. Talking of the DS John has said he has a definite interest in making a Quake Arena style multiplayer game for it. The idea of cart sharing and the easy wifi of the DS appeals to him and he is prepared to design the game for long play times, even to the point of simplifying the game back to Doom 2 style deathmatch so you're not experiencing wrist cramp after 10 minutes. Nice!

Speaking of Quake Arena, it was also announce that id are forming a second tier team for the first time. This team will be developing a version of Quake 3 Arena under the title of Quake Zero and using the id Tech 5 engine. Perhaps most stunning is that this game will be 100% subsidized by advertising and as such is totally free to gamers. With the subject of advertising in games being a sore point amongst many, it's refreshing to see id lead the way in showing that it can bring definite positives to a gaming community.

Finally id Tech 5 and the new IP. Well actually id Tech 5 gets showcased tomorrow so we only got a glimpse of it in action before John revealed their new IP. Darkness, was going to be it's name and actually was worked on by id for a period of time. The game seems to have been a kind of Lost meets Far Cry and gets f**ked by insane id lunatics. However, the id guys just didn't feel right about he idea and dropped it off the edge of Q3DM17. No! Rage is the new IP and they only said that it they enjoy a "Road Warrior" style of game with lots of running people over as well as shooting them, looks like Mel is outta luck with the anti-semitic portion of the game. Perhaps we'll see more clues about Rage tomorrow.

I won't cover the usual Carmack commentary, instead let me teasingly summarize it in short word form so you click over to Shacknews for more. :) DX10, PS3 Architecture, physics, rocket building, Fusion reactors, Wii Ware and Live Arcade, Microsoft and Sony, retinal scanning and many many more. :)

Update 1:

Damn I'm stupid. I forgot the mention the entire back catalogue of id software is hitting Valve's Steam Digital Distribution service. Now I've got a lot of id software sitting on scratched up CDs in my loft so if $62.95 (10% off the regular price of $69.95) is going to score me all of id's games from Commander Keen right up to Doom 3 Resurrection, and I can have them on hand at the click of a mouse then hot damn it I'm prepared to pay for that and avoid the dust and spider bites. Steam is also offering packs of different flavours if you only like a slice of the id software cake. Check out the Steam website for more details on the packs. Hell, in the time it's taken me to write this I've actually bought them all. :)

Doh, the link I had posted and then promptly greased myself up to watch was actually QuakeCon 2006's keynote. I should not drink and write. I'll update again when I find this years feed. :)

Update 2:

No sooner do I take down the link than up pops the files I was looking for in the first place.
Courtesy of QuakeUnity.Com

Rage footage [1m26s]
Absolutely stunning stuff and if you needed more proof id is back on form, the Rage logo rocks too. :)

Update 3:
Here is Todd Hollenshead's Keynote [15m10s] and of course John Carmack's keynote [1h05m]
Again props to RogerR at QuakeUnity.com for recording and uploading this excellent footage.

1Up has a piece on Quakecon and get Tim Willits to reveal a little more on Rage. It is Mad Max! Read it here

Shacknews has tidied up their live blog and produced a nice summary. If you think my post is too wordy you should check this out.

Don't forget id Tech 5 is getting its own 30 minute presentation right now, I hope we have some more news and video later today.

Update 4:
Okay this should wrap up the updates and Quakecon coverage. IGN currently have two videos up detailing the id Tech 5 demo and tools. It's all pretty stunning stuff and I sure there are some developers out there feeling exactly the same way.

[ADVANCE]

Dan Arey sheds light on Ready at Dawn

While I'm not a huge fan of the PSP, I have been watching my boss play a lot of stuff on his of late, and learned a fair bit about Ready at Dawn, the studio responsible for Daxter and the upcoming God of War: Chains of Olympus. Suddenly, I find myself quite intrigued by the creative minds behind the studio.

Why this sudden interest? I guess it's for the same reason that I admire studios like id. For a new studio, Ready at Dawn seems to be good -- really good -- at pushing the hardware of the PSP to its limits. Chains of Olympus looks like a freaking awesome game considering it's portable. I've always loved comparing exactly how much different studios can push the limits of the hardware of various systems. Square Enix, Nintendo, Mistwalker, Capcom ... and now RaD.

Speaking of which, GamesIndustry.biz managed to score a rather interesting interview with Dan Arey, a ten-year vet who left Naughty Dog to take up a position at Ready at Dawn. Here's the usual tidbits:

Do you think Ready at Dawn made the right choice when they started out by betting on PSP?

The principals at RAD had a well thought out plan, and they executed it to perfection. By not only developing and releasing Daxter on the PSP but making it one of the superstar titles on the console, they stood out quickly. It was part strategy, part hard work.

Then to follow it up with another well know franchise in God of War, but make their own unique game and story in the universe, and then rock the press with its technology... Well, that's something not every developer can do.

But RAD planned the work and worked the plan and all of this has been in preparation for their next big step. With a data driven engine that's platform agnostic, these guys are now in the amazing position to work on any platform they choose.

And here's a surprising bit of information one would never have thought of had it not been mentioned:

Is RAD sticking with PSP or expanding onto other platforms in the future?

The great thing about the RAD development pipeline is that it has been cross-platform - PSP / Windows - from the beginning, which means the technology can migrate to any platform. For example, I've seen God of War running on Windows; it's only for development purposes but it's still a kick to see!

The rest of the interview is pretty interesting, too. No big reveals or anything ... just some very general discussion about the direction the studio plans to take in the future. A fun read, in my opinion.

[ADVANCE]

Sony's "last hopes" of catching up

When it comes to the game industry, everyone's an analyst. And I'm not talking Micheal Pachter "I-think-so-and-so-will-sell-well" type analysis. I'm talking "Sony-needs-to-do-this-or-they-will-die" type analysis. As if we didn't have a gazillion Mark Rein wannabes already flooding the Internet, Forbes feels the need to get in on the action, too.

Clearly having followed gaming trends all their lives, Forbes thinks they know what Sony needs in order to fix its near-shattered reputation, turn console development into a profitable venture once again, and fight off the Wii's grip on the market. Says Forbes's Clayton M. Christensen:

The seemingly simplest option is to just come up with a copy-cat version of Nintendo’s controller that works with one of Sony’s existing consoles.

While this would be the quickest path to market, it has some real risks. Nintendo’s system has been optimized around its controller. Simply sticking a motion-based controller onto an existing system could result in a highly disappointing product. The controller would remain an afterthought, as opposed to an integral part of the product.

The second option is to repurpose Sony’s “legacy” product (PlayStation 2) into a me-too version of the Wii. To do this, Sony would develop a new controller, lower the price of the PlayStation 2, and try to get game developers to create motion-based games for the platform.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't those two options nearly identical? If you had to repurpose the PS2 (a horrendous suggestion, might I add), obviously you'd need a different kind of controller to support the new direction. A new controller that couldn't and shouldn't be like the SIXAXIS for obvious reasons. Believe it or not, Option #3 is even more vague.

The final option is for Sony to try to “disrupt the disruptor.” Instead of following a me-too strategy, Sony could seek to truly develop a category-changing project. While this approach would take more time and require greater investment, it has the most long-term potential—if Sony can figure out a different measure of performance on which to compete in the video game market. For example, perhaps the company could take another run at the handheld market, where there still seems to be substantial room for growth.

Disrupt the disrupter? You mean take more risks by doing the crazy things Nintendo does when they're rolling in money and Sony's digging deep into their piggy bank?

As for taking another run at the handheld market, I think the company has been doing that for quite some time now, and the results kind of speak for themselves.

[Via Gamerush Entertainment]

[ADVANCE]

Sony Computer Entertainment: A shift in focus

Despite the fact that people are still slamming Sony due sheer hatred and anti-fanboy tendencies, I don't really think it makes a difference at this point. Over the past six months or so, Sony has observed the market, observed the competition, observed themselves, and have taken a step or two in a direction that is sure to redeem their image as well as their losses over the next year or so.

One of these steps was, of course, the removal of Ken "Father of the PlayStation" Kutaragi. While Kutaragi may very well be the hardware equivalent of John Carmack and Shigeru Miyamoto, his over-confidence and outright arrogance wasn't exactly doing wonders for the company. The same goes for our good buddy Kaz Hirai, who was also mostly absent from Sony's E3 press conference this year, save for a couple of introductory lines he threw at the audience to set up Phil Harrison's part.

The absence of the devious duo isn't all that has changed about Sony, though. Judging from the interviews they have given all throughout E3 this year, it seems the company's focus has shifted completely to allow for a more "Nintendo-like" structure. This is evidenced even further in a GamesIndustry.biz interview with David Reeves, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

Speaking to GI.biz about Sony's humbler, more relevant press conference this year, Reeves had some interesting things to say.

Was that humbler approach taken because you think Sony has appeared arrogant in the past?

I think they have. Not deliberately, but at E3 last year and maybe the year before, the presentations they did to a European and a Japanese perspective - yes. To an American perspective - no, because the difference in cultures is you have to go, 'Ra-ra, I'm the best.'

We in Europe, and especially the Japanese, don't necessarily accept that. You have to say, 'We're doing our best, but we're not the best.'

If you ask me, he hit the nail on the head. Europe and Japan are not countries where the marketing of a game is considered more important than the actual product itself, while the Americas are. Considering that the U.S. market is saturated with Xbox 360s, Sony is being most wise to realize the importance of the European and Japanese markets to their company's success.

Moving on to tackle the question of exclusivity, David had an equally interesting response to give.

As you say you've got Metal Gear Solid and Gran Turismo, and then Microsoft's got the likes of Halo. Then there's this murkiness around titles like GTA IV, where extra content is coming out on 360, and Microsoft is saying 360 is the only place where you can get the full GTA IV experience. Why didn't you get that content?

It's just a question of money. If Microsoft wants to pay USD 50 million just for that... Then I would say they're quite desperate. But as Jack Tretton said, we're really not in the business any more of buying exclusivity. We're more in the business of developing, from Phil Harrison's area, new IPs. We want to move on.

It's too easy to look at and say, 'We must get the GTA franchise.' By the time you've got it the world's moved on, and they'll be talking about some other game. I've got children who are 11 to 15 years old, and those kids are looking forward and not necessarily looking back.

They're the kids who are going to be buying it - the new franchises, but not necessarily the old ones that we signed up to E3 four or five years ago. They're not going to drive the market in the future; it's going to be the new ones.

Once again, an accurate and believable answer. I know this bullshit with the price drop and the 60GB model is annoying the hell out of a lot of people, but at least for the time being, Sony is back in my good books, solely due to the fact that they are more aware of their consumers' needs and their position in the market. Whether or not their humility is faked doesn't really matter ... as long as the gloating is left for long phone calls among their execs back at the office, I'm OK with it.

I'd recommend giving the entire interview a read if you've been feeling particularly spiteful towards SCE of late. Surprisingly, they even had a few good words for Nintendo. The actual, direct rivalry seems to be completely between Sony and Microsoft.

[ADVANCE]

Post-E3 thoughts and ponderings

Apart from Sony, no one really had much to reveal at E3 this year. I wonder if that was because they were "testing the waters" as far as the new format of the show was concerned. No telling what exactly it could have been, but it just seemed really dull on all fronts this year.

Microsoft

"And now, I would like to present...a new console for all of Halo nation .... the HALO 360."

*cricket cricket cricket*

*clap*

I think that pretty much sums up how Microsoft's conference went this year. Apart from the crazed fanboys, there weren't too many people who seemed very excited or very convinced by Microsoft's bullshit about market growth ... especially when Nintendo's own chart showed Microsoft's contribution to market growth was a mere 2%.

The fact that nearly every game at the Microsoft even was also at the Sony conference didn't help them much either. Still, Mass Effect and Lost Odyssey looked very cool.

Nintendo

In a word, disappointing. The near complete lack of anything new at the show coupled with nearly a half hour of Reggie gloating shamelessly gave off the impression that Nintendo is exactly where Sony was last year.

The Metroid demo looked decent, as did journalists' impressions of Super Mario Galaxy. Apart from that, they had what ... a brief mention of Mario Kart Wii? A response to all the queries about online that would have been as good as a "No. Fuck you." had it been any more defiant in its presentation?

That, and still no HDD announcement? Not even a mention of the Monolith Soft game? Or Disaster?

Wii Fit was really cool, though. I love the idea of the Balance Board, and I think the potential for such a device (especially combined with the Wiimote and Nunchuck) is limitless. More innovation please, Nintendo.

Surprisingly, despite the fact that the conference was filled with your typical high and mighty, snobbish journalists, Nintendo still got a ton of applause. I guess they deserve it, but honestly, I really was expecting a bit more from the show.

SONY

Everyone who said Sony's presentation this year at E3 would be the best can give themselves a little pat on the back.

Surely enough, Sony Computer Entertainment, who had the most to lose, really outdid themselves this year in the form of a highly entertaining and content-filled E3 Business and Media Summit press conference. Assuming all of you reading this have already watched video coverage of the event, these are the parts that really made me root for Sony throughout all of E3 this year:

1. The absence of Kaz Hirai: I'll be honest. I think this was the best decision that could have been taken this year. The absence of the devious duo from Sony's press conference alone made me feel more "in touch" with the company's goals.

I admit, I didn't know what to think of Jack Tretton earlier, but you know what? He's OK. I loved how Tretton and Phil Harrison made a genuine effort to sound enthusiastic throughout the entire conference, and not elitist and indifferent to their consumers like their Japanese counterparts. Sure, you could argue that they had no choice, but they made a solid effort, and it paid off, and that's what counts.

2. Chewbacca: Yes, it was cheesy. Yes, I loved it.

3. Software: Sony's first-party line-up looks mighty strong this year. Sure, they didn't announce much we hadn't already seen before in one form or another, but what really made the difference was how more than half of the titles Microsoft hyped to all hell in their own conference were just given a short 30-second trailer each; almost as if Sony were saying, "Oh yeah, we got those, to. Next."

Kudos to the company on managing to keep Metal Gear exclusive, and of course, Unreal Tournament 3's absence from the 360 at the game's launch is going to put the hurt on Xbox profits. Heavenly Sword and Gran Turismo 5 both looked magnificent, as did the new Wipeout game. I wasn't quite sure what to think of Killzone 2 from the trailer at the conference itself, but I'm definitely willing to give the game a chance.

Nicely done, Sony. It's good to know I wasn't entirely wrong about your company vision.

[ADVANCE]

Weekend rant: E3 cometh.

It's almost finally here. The biggest event in the gaming industry, reduced to a mere shell of its former self ... or so people say. Personally, I'm going to reserve judgment until all the shows are actually over. I think E3 Business & Media Summit will still be as exciting as the Electronic Entertainment Expo as far as revelations and information is concerned.

It isn't surprising to log on to any videogame site and see a bunch of E3 predictions staring back at you on the front page. A lot of sites are extremely enthusiastic about the show, and while some of their predictions are just outright outrageous, some could prove to be spot on once the event commences. Of course, all the bigger sites probably already know what they will be seeing at the event ... they're just not allowed to say it.

OK, let's get this over with. My own E3 predictions as far as the big three are concerned. I'd love to do this by publisher/developer, but despite the reduced numbers, there are still quite a few of them attending the event.

Sony: The company with the most to prove this year. I wouldn't be surprised at all if Sony's press conference turns out to be the most exciting of the three. Hopefully, the price drop rumours are true and a price drop will indeed be in effect the day after their conference takes places. After all, what better way is there to take advantage of impulse buyers?

As far as software is concerned, I'd expect to see a ton of Metal Gear Solid 4 info. Hopefully, we'll be seeing more than just another teaser trailer for the Final Fantasy XIII games. I also expect Square to release info on the other titles in the Fabula Nova Crystallis series.

Killzone 2. You know it's coming. Hopefully, the fact that Bioshock is multiplatform will also be revealed. As far as info from Sony itself is concerned, it's pretty obvious the new PSP model will be revealed during their press conference. They probably won't drop UMD, but I'm fairly certain they will adopt another, additional format to decrease load times and costs. I'd expect to see more of PlayStation Home and God of War: Chains of Olympus as well.

But these are games we've all heard about before. What about the ones we have no clue about? In that regard, I hope we'll be seeing that new game from the creators of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus at the event as well. Devil May Cry 4 and GTA IV will probably be present in some form as well. Oh, and the new Rachet & Clank game of course.

Coming back to hardware, I think now would be a good time to show off their new rumble technology as well. A demonstration of sorts showing off the PS3-PSP connectivity would also be much appreciated.

Personally, I think Sony is going to come through in a big way.

Nintendo: God damn. I swear to God, there is nothing harder than Nintendo predictions. Sure, we'll be seeing Mario Galaxy and it'll rock, and maybe we'll see some Smash Bros. Brawl footage as well ... everyone knows about that stuff. But what about the crazier announcements? It's not Nintendo without any crazy announcements.

The Nintendo press conference is likely to be a very different event this year. Considering the audience will consist mainly of members of the press and retailers (and not Nintendo fans and fanboys), I'd expect the crazy applause to be absent from their conference this year. I would love to be proven wrong, though.

A new role-playing game from Monolith Soft. Metroid Prime 3 with kickass controls, being played with the Blaster add-on. Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles. Mario Kart Wii. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Archaic Sealed Heat and Phantom Hourglass for the DS. Those are the titles I'd expect to see really shine at the event. There will probably also be some sort of demonstration of WiiWare as well as tons and tons of casual games.

Coming to hardware ... a new DS? Doubtful. Very doubtful. A new storage format for Wii announced alongside the DVD-capable Wii? More likely. Also, did I mention the rumours about a Nintendo franchise being brought back to life? This is the event everyone is going to have their eyes on, despite the fact that it probably won't be the best.

You might want to watch out for a ton of gloating at the event, though. And numbers. Lots of numbers.

Microsoft: Halo 3. GTA IV. Mass Effect, which I'm really looking forward to learning more about. Gears of War for the PC. And Ninja Gaiden 2. Assassin's Creed. Blue Dragon. Lost Odyssey.

Those are the games on the 360 that I'd expect to see. After all, what else could they announce? A price drop? Unlikely. MGS 4 for the 360? I sure as hell hope not. The PS3 needs all the help it can get. In terms of actual games, I'd expect either Microsoft or Nintendo to have the most announcements.

On the software side, I'm really excited about Eternal Sonata and Lost Odyssey. I'd love to see more of both those titles. Alan Wake has been in limbo way too long as well, so I sure hope it makes some sort of appearance this time around.

As far as hardware is concerned ... every other site has had its crazy prediction, and this is mine: I believe Microsoft will reveal a portable with Halo playable on it at the event. And no, I really don't know anything I'm not letting on to ... this is pure speculation based on some gossip I heard last year.

And that's that from me. What do you guys think?

[ADVANCE]