Konami says PS3 not viable market, they wish it were...

Joystiq is reporting that an executive at Konami has stated that the PS3 user base does not justify exclusivity of MGS4, especially when considering the cost of development these days. Kitaue says, "Since Metal Gear Solid was born for the PlayStation, we would like to keep it a PlayStation game. But we might have to take some steps."

Let the speculation begin...

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DOXOfeature: Dyack at IASC, The 8th Art.

This past week I had the pleasure of attending the 'Immersive Worlds' conference at Brock University. There were many interesting Game related lectures going on, my most anticipated? Dennis Dyack. He spoke of many things, Too human, Gaming as Art, the future of gaming and revealed little more about his new SEGA game to me. (very little)

Full report, and the 'one question exclusive interview' after the jump!


Dennis kicked off his speech by showing us a real time cinematic of Too Human, it’s the same build he showed us last time, still looks great. He then went on to introduce his colleague Barry Grant who happens to be a professor of Film studies at Brock University, but also belongs to the Silicon Knights team. He spoke a great deal about the history of film and the uphill battle film makers faced when trying to convince the masses that moving pictures deserved to be taken seriously as an art form, and not strictly as entertainment. He draws many parallels to the gaming industry, sharing the same mentality that Dyack himself has expressed many times before; Games are moving away from a past of strictly entertaining people and moving into a future where they are held in much higher regard. An interesting comparison he shared was that early film, much like gaming, found its popularity in spectacle- something that lost it’s appeal overtime. As film matured though, the evolution of characters, and story telling was able to create compelling pieces of art that held more than ones eyes- they made you think. This is where Silicon Knights believes gaming is going, more accurately, it is where Dyack and Co. want to take it.

At that point Dennis took the stage again and recollected a talk he had with Hideo Kojima. During the production of Twin Snakes Dyack asked Kojima what they could have done to make a bigger impact with Eternal Darkness. Kojima gave him a simple answer:

You need to erase the lines between cinematic an gameplay.

This was the sole inspiration for the ‘controllable cut scenes’ in Too Human. He brought up the fact that there are standards for cinematography that should not be ignored in gaming and that even limitations of film are being emulated in games in order to achieve the same sense of immersion. He gave us an example. In film, the background of a scene is often out of focus, minimalizing distraction for viewers. This was originally a limitation of primitive cameras, but has carried on because it is a technique that works. In this current generation of gaming we are seeing more and more depth of field being created through atmospheric perspective (essentially- sharper in the front, blurry in the back) which is something that games are not limited too, in fact it’s quite the opposite. Gaming hardware needed to get more advanced to pull off this ’restriction’. Dyack then went into another direction, he spoke about how we have reached a point where technology does not drive the industry, and that it was backwards thinking to say otherwise. He calls out for more creativity, and more academia in gaming. Rich stories, and deep character design, he calls for a Renaissance 2.0. He states that the art will drive the industry, the science - just as it did in the day of Michelangelo. I have to admit it was a pretty inspiring little segment. He explained how the mentality of some developers is like that of a stereotypical high school student, his example; Rockstar. He believes that if you ask somebody at Rockstar what makes their game fun, they don’t have satisfying answers, and will simply say something like, ‘Hey it’s a cool game, because I’m cool, and I made it. I’m a Rockstar.’ Again questioning the maturity of the industry, but also questioning sales.

He expressed that he was a bit dissatisfied with sales of Eternal Darkness, especially after the success of Legacy of Kain (which he blamed partly on platform). This caused him to think hard about a games marketability and what it is that people want to play. He stated that he believed graphics played a huge part in this, using Gears of War as an example (as he did last time I saw him speak) he said that it was one of the most beautiful games he had ever seen but that the play mechanics were average at best, and that the story would have been better had it not existed. He actually downplayed the importance of gameplay a little bit, stating that a lot of games that have ‘the play’ and not ‘the look’ tend to attract less gamers. He continued, saying that games like Mario and Zelda are often successful (not to mention over 20 years old) due to this synthesis. He then spoke of the engagement theory. Dyack claims, that games sell based on the level of engagement offered to the player and that different attributes hold certain weight.

Engagement = Art +Audio + Content + Gameplay

Controversially, he believes in this as a sort of hierarchy, placing gameplay at the bottom. I would assume that each attribute doesn’t hold much more weight than the next, but Silicon Knights does seem more concerned with telling a story.

I came out of the presentation rather impressed with Silicon Knight’s vision and commitment to that vision. Judging from what I’ve seen of the game so far it seems that they’re making large strides towards their goal and it’s really exciting to see as a gamer. After wards I approached Dennis who actually recognized me. I told him I didn’t want to ask him another question he couldn’t answer, at least not in front of everybody. So I asked him a few in private. He wouldn’t elaborate much on the SEGA project (which he revealed to me months ago, as a multiplatform title), but continued to ask him about it:

Me: I know SEGA has been reviving a bunch of their old franchises lately, like Alien Syndrome, is this another attempt at that?

Dyack: No no, this is something that we’re building- something brand new.

That’s all he would say about that, I’ll admit it’s more exciting a prospect than an old IP coming back , look forward to it- just not anytime soon.


Hit this to see our report from SKHQ where the first tidbit about the SEGA game was revealed to me

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PS3 dies as MGS4 makes it's way to the 360, wii?

Pascuzzi try to be strong. Destructoid is reporting that Konami will be bringing the PS3's biggest exclusive to the 360, but also might be planning a Metal Gear game for Wii. Could my dream game: Raiden as Ninja on Wii, actually be coming? they'd be smart if it did. Hit the link, I'm pretty sure Ron Workman (writter of the original post) Works at microsoft (gaming division) so his seems pretty reliable, but no major news outlets are covering it. We'll probably have to wait for e3 to learn anything factual, that is if Kojima doesn't outright deny this tomorrow morning. Sorry if I scared you Pascuzzi, but would you really be surprised?

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SEGA's Gamers Day unleashes Wii goodness, amongst other things. UPDATED

Rather long title no? Anyways, lets jump right into it. Kotaku is live blogging the event and there were a few announcements regarding Sega's upcoming titles like the Marvel IPs they have acquired (Iron Man, and Hulk) as well as a shooter and RPG for the PC, and a sequel to some 360 game. However what most people seem to be excited for (which Matt Cassamassina alluded too in IGNs latest 'wii-k in review') is a new FPS for the Wii which apparently uses a light gun? I'm hoping they mean Wii remote but...I don't know. The game is called 'Ghost Squad' which sounds like a pretty lame name if you ask me. It will be playable at the event and if we don't hear more about the title today, look forward to their hands on impressions tomorrow.

My two cents? If it uses a light gun now, by release it will use the wii remote with a gun peripheral.

Hit the jump for the update!

IGN pulled through with some more details. Apparently the game is based of an older(2005) Arcade game of the same name. The game WILL use the Wii remote of course, and the graphics are pretty clean (though not 'next gen' looking). The game promises to have loads of hidden content and a wide array of weapons. It supports up to four players at once as well, which is a definite plus.

With the wake of Umbrella Chronicles and now Ghost Squad, is the 'on-rails shooter' going to be the new 'mini-game compilation' for the Wii? Step up if you ask me, but we aren't quite out of this 'gimmick phase' just yet.

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Don't Fret, Your 360 News is Here!

Hey hey everybody! I'm Pizzle, I'm new around here and I'm supposedly goin' to post some news regarding Microsoft's glorious new console the Xbox 360. I'm your 360 fanboy, so be expecting a lot of news regarding it cause we all know the P(l)aystation 3 (the 'l' is optional) has nothing goin' on :P. Now, on to my first piece of news...

Guitar Hero II hit stores today for the Xbox 360, offering an exciting new look for the guitar, a change from the Gibson SG to the Gibson Xplorer. The graphics are amped up on the 360 version and offerings of 1080i HDTV glory. There's also some subtle changes to the game, the set list is changed up in the 360 copy to help ease the progression of the game along with a total of 10 new songs not seen on the previous Playstation 2 version. Some new songs include Rancid's Salvation, Pearl Jam's Life Wasted and Billion Dollar Babies by Alice Cooper. Along with these exclusive tracks Guitar hero 2 will also support the 360's Marketplace and will have some Download Content (DLC) on the way as early as next week! Other then that if achievement points are your heroin you'll be happy to know there's 50 achievements with a total of 1000 Gamerpoints! Happy trails.

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DOXOfeature: Journey to Silicon Knights

The day has finally come...and gone, but it was definitely a memorable experience and a really great look into the gaming industry. Today I visited Silicon Knights, the biggest game developer in Ontario (which is sad, according to Dyack, considering they are comprised of only 150 employees) and let me just say that they really know how to treat their guests.

An average looking building concealed Silicon Knights, a clever disguise I must say. The development studio is spread over three floors of the building, the rest allocated to other businesses. It's definitely cosy.

When the elevator doors opened we were greeted by a gorgeous wall mounted fountain sporting the studios logo. I took the above image as we left, it was the only I was allowed to take, for what we were shown is something that not many have seen. We were ushered into the private theatre that Dyack and Co. use to show off their games. I'm sure they have movie Fridays too, or atleast they should.

The Dyack addressed our group rather casually, he comes off as a very personable man, and very very passionate. His presentation was a rather interesting one. He explained to us, the vision of Silicon Knights; Expand the industry through innovation and heightened production values. They're all about overtaking Hollywood as a story telling and entertainment medium. Dyack enlightened us about research and how they have put 8 -10 years into Too Human research and 8 years alone into developing the smart camera system present in the game. Considering they've been around for 15 years that's a healthy chunk of time dedicated to this ambitious trilogy - I'm just thankful somebody in the game industry is finally taking story telling history, and authenticity seriously*. He also offered some insight on how the industry will fight piracy. Stating that when the Internet is fast enough all games will stream off of a central server which players subscribe too in order to play, thus eliminating the mod chip and bootleg games market, in theory... Then finally, the reason for us being in a theatre was revealed.

Dennis Dyack reminded us that no photography, of any kind, was permitted because what he was about to show us was not shown to many others. He then proceeded to boot up a 360 dev kit and opened up the latest build of Too Human. To say the least I was thrilled, just before leaving I made jokes to my friends that we would be shown things nobody has ever seen, and there we were...sort of.



The portion he played began in an incredibly cinematic cutscene. The 'Wolf troopers' were preparing to embark on a mission inside a transport vehicle being dropped at it's location. The scene was flawlessly directed, rivaling the likes of the Metal Gear series, Final Fantasy or Resident Evil 4. Graphically the game was great, focal blurring really added to the cinematic feel as well as the quality voice acting. Animation was also solid, as was the texturing. Dennis let us in on a little secret; The RAM required to render the main character in all his hi-res glory is more than there was in the Gamecube all together.

The transition from cutscene to gameplay was absoloutly flawless, infact the cutscenes take place within the gameplay...or is it the other way around? Due to the advanced camera system players are put into cut scenes simply by walking into the appropriate area, the catch is that the camera transitions flawlessly, there is no graphical seperation and the player retains control of their character at all times. Yes, you can jump around while somebody is trying to talk to you. The real beauty of this game comes from the camera work though, honestly I found it hard to believe the camera was not being controlled by Dyack, it seemed very intuitive. Needless to say all issues from e3 seemed to be ironed out.

Dyack played for a solid 10-15 minutes and the game held my attention the entire time. There is absoloutly no load time visible to the player. There was a playable flashback sequence at one point which seemed to be rendered instantaneously and ready for the gamer to play when they reached that point. The setting changed completely as if we were watching a film. Again - no visible loading. Dyack explained to us that this was important to them, he said it was key in recreating the same experience as watching a movie.

After the play session there was Q&A. A few questions regarding the film influence were asked, and then I dropped the bomb, here's a summary;

Me: How is it working with a liscenced engine as opposed to one that you've created? I know it caused some problems at e3 that were exploited.

Dyack: I'm not answering that question.

That garnered a few snickers from most of those in attendance, mostly employees though.

After the talk they gave us all some swag! the awesome shirt, pictured below.




While people were moving out the door I took the time to introduce myself to Dennis and just to chat a bit, I apologized about bringing up e3, we had a bit of a laugh. We continued to talk about the industry and how imitating film, both in product and in presentation (down with previews!) would better the industry. Of course by this time I had worked up enough courage to ask him to sign my copy of Eternal Darkness, which just so happened to be in my back pack.



I brought a Sharpie but he insisted that he sign with a silver pen, I had no gripes, so we talked a little more. I addressed the fact that Microsoft was publishing Too Human and just got clarification that in no way is Silicon Knights a second party to Microsoft. They are free to develop for who ever they want, Microsoft is simply publishing the trilogy. He furthered this point by letting me in on a little secret.

Silicon Knights is currently working with SEGA to develop a multi-platform game.

After telling me that he added "I probably shouldn't have said that." While I think it was a not-so-well-known fact that they were working with SEGA, the fact that it was multi-platform
has not yet been revealed to my knowledge. His exact wording was indeed "All platforms" But who knows what that means, I don't think we're going to see Silicon Knights creating a DS game anytime soon. As far as I know the studio has never developed for more than one console at a time, but Dyack did mention that they were growing at a rapid pace.

After this intimate presentation in the theatre we were shown to the studio which was comprised of many personalized cubicles- but not shabby coffee stained cubicles, we're talking small houses here. Each work station was decorated to the employee's personal tastes. There was concept art and action figures everywhere, and I couldn't help but notice a portion on the wall that was covered in a black cloth, a print out pinned to it read

CONFIDENTIAL
punishable by death

They've got class down there at Silicon Knights, everybody was a real pleasure, and just very welcoming. It was a great experience and a very satisfying look into the game industry

Keep looking forward to Too Human updates, the game seems to be incredibly well conceived. Believe not EGM because that build was obviously a fluke and the game looks beautiful, a note worthy part of the 'games as art' debate for sure.

Edit: Forgot to mention, I witnessed a brief miniboss battle. Nothing too special but, I thought you should all know that the name of that beast, was none other than "Matt Cassamassina" I hand it to the developers for spelling that right.

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Spider-Man 3 Game Trailer in 'HD'

So after seeing this game in motion with the absence of that god awful youTube compression I have to say it looks good, but not great. Spidey is a bit toyish, very shiny plastic sort of look, and the animation is a bit disappointing. Of course I still think it looks good, the in game cutscenes (car jumping) look great! but I can't help but notice that some animation transitions are a bit jumpy. Mind you there is probably a lot of development to be done still.

As a man who was dangerously obsessed with Spider-man for a good portion of his high school career I can say that I'll play anything with 'Spider-Man' in the title, but I'm not blind to faults. The game will be a blast despite what it looks like - hey thats why I have a Wii after all.

I'm picky.

It'll be a great game I just hope they fix up the character model a bit, even explosions...Red Steel had better explosions than this... anyways, I'm rambling.

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Spider-Man 3 info finally released

After what has been a long, hard year of waiting Treyarch has finally pried the lid off their biggest project to date. Spider-Man 3 is coming to basically every platform imaginable so everybody has the right to be excited. While The spider-man model may be a bit 'wonky' it still looks really good, and I can only speculate that the animation is even better than that of Spider-Man 2. Mind you the screens shown are from Ps3, and/or the Xbox360.

There are some pretty interesting details such as the fact that the city will actually feel either happy with you or hate you, based on your actions. The symbiote gameplay sounds really cool too, take a look!

Heres the full overview via Gamespot

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