GDC 2011: Rockstar San Diego’s Western triumphs at Game Developers Conference’s annual ceremony; Mass Effect 2, Limbo, Minecraft, also honored.
Each year, the Game Developers Conference‘s crowning event is the Game Developers Choice Awards, one of the most prestigious ceremonies in gaming. Hosted once again by the comically gifted head of Double Fine Productions, Tim Schafer, the evening wasted no time in getting started, awarding the Best Audio trophy to Red Dead Redemption.
Moving on to Best Game Design, Red Dead Redemption rode off with the trophy, putting another notch in developer Rockstar San Diego’s belt. Minecraft got another trophy for Best Downloadable Game, as well as the Innovation Award, leaving game co-creator Markus Persson virtually speechless.
Best Visual Arts went to Playdead’s Xbox Live game Limbo, which was also the subject of one of the night’s various skits by nerd-comedy troupe Mega64. Best Handheld Game was won by ZeptoLab’s Cut the Rope.
GDC 2011: Creative director behind EA’s 2010 multiplatform hoops game explains how the team decided what was kept and what was tossed for a new console take on the hit arcade franchise.
Who was there: EA Sports creative director Trey Smith was on hand for a presentation titled “Bringing back the ‘BOOMSHAKALAKA!’”
What they talked about: Smith opened his talk by explaining the origin of the new NBA Jam, which wasn’t an NBA Jam at all. At first, Smith was told to make a Wii basketball game for kids where the only thing players had to worry about was dribbling the ball virtually with the Wii Remote. The game became Bounce, which was an original intellectual property that was essentially inspired by NBA Jam. When they nabbed the NBA Jam license, Smith said the team partied like rock stars that night.
However, they woke up the next day and realized the enormity of the task ahead of them. In 1993, the original NBA Jam brought in billion in arcades, Smith said. That’s more than three times the highest grossing film of the year, Jurassic Park.
To start with, Smith said the team invoked “The Sequel Rule of Thirds.” One-third of the game had to be the same as before, to “take players back to their Happy Place.” The next third of the game had to be improved over the original. Enhance the recipe, but don’t change it so much that the audience doesn’t like the taste anymore. The final third had to be all new, taking the franchise places it had never been before. But above all, Smith emphasized the need to be true to the source material.
As for what to keep the same to appeal to the hardcore fanbase, Smith pointed to the arcade-style features of the original NBA Jam. It had to have over-the-top dunks, Big Head mode, players catching on fire, backboard shattering dunks, and a strong multiplayer component. (He remembered it being a vary rare sight to have just one person at the old four-player Jam arcade cabinets.) Finally, there was the amped-up play-by-play announcer yelling “BOOMSHAKALAKA!”
That announcer, Chicago actor Tim Kitzrow, wound up being part of the one-third of the game Smith said was kept the same. Mark Turmell was another returning face from the original NBA Jam development team. Turmell, who Smith described as “the godfather of arcade sports,” was enlisted to work on the NBA Jam revamp a few months after development began.
We take our first look at Piranha Bytes’ sequel to Risen and the spiritual successor to the Gothic series.
If there’s a better reason to attend the 2011 Game Developer Conference than the opportunity to take a first look at Gothic developer Piranha Bytes’ role-playing sequel Risen 2: Dark Waters, we don’t want to hear it. This sequel takes the high-fantasy world of Risen, which took place on a besieged island, and will become a full-on, full-fledged, full-featured, full-monty pirate role-playing game, where you play not only as Piranha Bytes’ established “Hero” character, but also as a seafaring adventurer in a fantastic age of sail.
Risen 2 takes place some in-game years after the events in the first game. Specifically, the Hero has vanquished the threat of the powerful titan monster that threatened his island home after first defeating the evil inquisitor and claiming the villain’s magical eyepatch–an artifact that let the Hero identify the titan for what it was–a malevolent creature disguised as a natural disaster. Unfortunately, bigger problems are afoot–other titans are awakening near other islands in the area, and worse yet, hideous sea monsters have emerged from the deep, completely disrupting trade routes and generally causing the few survivors who exist in the world to be very, very grumpy.
And as it turns out, the Hero is the grumpiest of all. In a first for a Piranha Bytes game, the Hero does not suffer from amnesia and does remember his hard-fought battles and narrow escapes perfectly well, thank you very much. However, his cool reception by an unappreciative populace has made him bitter and frustrated, though he still seeks to save the world by finding some means to rescue the other islands from their impending doom.
Autumn Games have announced they are working with game developer Reverge Labs to develop Skullgirls, a new fast-paced 2D fighting game that puts players in control of fierce female warriors in an extraordinary Dark Deco world. The team is led by renowned fighting game champion Mike “Mike Z” Zaimont and artist Alex Ahad, whose work has appeared in many publications, including Scott Pilgrim and Lava Punch.
Using advanced graphical technology never before achieved in a game of its type, Skullgirls is currently in development for a 2011 release on Xbox 360 and PS3.
Atlus localizing Japanese horror adventure game for release on Xbox 360, PS3 this summer.
Last month, the heavily hyped Marvel vs. Capcom 3 launched in Japan but found itself a distant second place on the weekly sales charts to a title largely unfamiliar to gamers in the West. Atlus is giving those gamers a chance to familiarize themselves with it, as today the publisher announced a summer North American release for Catherine on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
A horror adventure game, Catherine has players navigating tricky relationship waters as Vincent. When the commitment-phobic protagonist’s girlfriend Katherine starts talking about taking their relationship to the next level, Vincent finds himself straying. While out drinking with friends, he meets a flirty bombshell named Catherine, whom–after a series of events he can’t quite recall–he wakes up next to the following morning.
In addition to helping Vincent make decisions to extricate himself from the situation, players will be called on to fight off the physical manifestations of his fears and guilt as he sleeps. Atlus will also include local competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes, complete with leaderboard support.
Although the game is an original property, Catherine is a collaboration between a number of notable creators. Katsura Hashino, director of Persona 3 and 4, is serving as producer on Catherine, with help from that series’ character artist Shigenori Soejima and composer Shoji Meguro. Going beyond the world of games, Japanese animation shop Studio4˚C (Tekkonkinkreet, Halo Legends) also lent its talents to the project.
Tecmo Koei teases reveal of blood-spattered sequel at upcoming convention; game to ship sometime in 2012; first trailer inside.
Last year at the Tokyo Game Show, Tecmo Koei unveiled Ninja Gaiden III, the upcoming installment in the ultraviolent–and ultradifficult–action series. Little was revealed about the game, other than it would once again feature protagonist Ryu Hayabusa engaged in the bloody combat the franchise is known for.
Today, Tecmo Koei released the first teaser trailer for the game, which also teased the title’s brutal nature. Running around 37 seconds, the clip shows Ryu Hayabusa repeatedly slashing and stabbing someone–from the victim’s point of view. The clip then shows the titular ninja, covered in blood, leaning back to take off his famed mask–and then cuts to the Japanese character for the number three. The words “unmask” and “E3 2011″ then appear before the trailer ends.
The accompanying press release–which never mentions Ninja Gaiden III by name–promises that the “new title” will see release sometime in 2012. Development is underway at Team Ninja under the leadership of the studio’s leader, Yosuke Hayashi. Hayashi took over the shop after former head Tomonobu Itagaki left the company following Ninja Gaiden II’s release in 2008.
“The game is set to introduce this franchise to a broader audience while at the same time retaining the legendary challenge that has drawn hardcore gamers to the series for years,” Tecmo Koei said in a statement. The company promised that a playable demo of the game would be on hand for the press at E3.
According to the official Twitter feeds of Guitar Hero and DJ Hero, both games will enjoy at least one more track pack thanks to fans’ “continued support” for both brands. The Twitter streams did not state which songs will be available in the upcoming packs or affix a release date to them.
New release slate highlighted by first M-rated franchise entry and First Strike add-on content for Sony’s console; Beyond Good & Evil HD, Rift, Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War II: Retribution also out.
The splendid shooter Killzone 3 and the foul-mouthed Bulletstorm led all releases last week, but this week’s focus shifts to hand-to-hand fighting, Call of Duty multiplayer, and a revival of Beyond Good & Evil.
Leading the pack this week is EA Sports’ Fight Night Champion for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Champion is the first Fight Night game to be rated M for Mature. The game is being billed as one that is “gritty” and “dark,” with animations and player damage that “truly conveys the brutality of the sport of boxing.”
EA is promising a refined physics-based animation system and a new “Full Spectrum Punch Control” scheme. The title will focus on a single-player mode intended to re-create the dramatic and emotional aspects of the sport.
PlayStation 3 gamers looking to add to their copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops can pick up the First Strike downloadable content this week via the PlayStation Network. As for the content, the map pack includes four new multiplayer environments ranging in locale from the Berlin Wall in Germany to a North American hockey rink. The add-on also bundles one environment for the game’s zombie mode dubbed Ascension.
While Beyond Good & Evil 2 is still far off, fans of the series can pick up an updated version of the well-received original this week on Xbox Live. Beyond Good & Evil HD will feature 1080p graphics, including enhanced character models and upgraded textures, and Ubisoft has also remastered the game’s musical score.
Also out this week is Trion Worlds’ massively multiplayer online game Rift for PC. As its title might suggest, the game’s premise is that of “rifts” in space time that are playing havoc with the land of Telara and threatening to tear the fabric of the universe. The world will be highly malleable, as these rifts can be triggered by players or the development team, and they can also occur spontaneously. Their arrival will apparently alter the landscape, as well as open up new areas for exploration.
Those who would rather add to an existing game than pick up a new one can grab Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Retribution for the PC. Retribution follows on from the events that transpired in Dawn of War II’s first expansion, Chaos Rising. Set 10 years later, the game sees the Imperium reeling after an apparent betrayal by Gabriel Angelos’ Space Marines. Gamers will be able to assume command of their chosen faction to experience the events of the game as they play out.
Gamers looking for something a little lighter this week can pick up Rango The Video Game. It will be released the Tuesday before the Johnny Depp-voiced animated Western releases in theaters on Friday, March 4. Like its film inspiration, the action adventure game will follow the travails of its titular out-of-his-element lizard. The game will be set in the Wild West town of Dirt, and gamers will find themselves meeting quirky characters, as well as engaging in shoot-outs and other old-timey activities.
For further details on the week’s games, visit GameSpot’s New Releases page. The full list of downloadable games on the PlayStation Store, Xbox Live Marketplace, and Wii Shop Channel will be revealed later this week. Release dates are based on retailer listings and are subject to change.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28
Fate of the World–PC–Red Redemption
Martial Empires: The Catastrophe of Babylon–PC–gamigo
TUESDAY, MARCH 1
Chuck E. Cheese’s Sports Games–Wii–UFO Interactive
Fight Night Champion–PS3, X360–EA Sports
Rango: The Video Game–PS3, X360, Wii, DS–Paramount Digital Entertainment
Rift–PC–Trion Worlds
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Retribution–PC–THQ
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2
Beyond Good & Evil HD–X360–Ubisoft
Call of Duty: Black Ops: First Strike–PS3–Activision
Perfect World International: Genesis–PC–Perfect World Entertainment
We shed some light on The Darkness II and catch up on the life and times of Jackie Estacado.
Jackie Estacado has it rough. As the protagonist of 2007′s The Darkness–a first-person shooter based on the comic series of the same name–Jackie led a content life with his girlfriend, Jenny. However, on his 21st birthday, a malevolent force awoke within him and drew our unfortunate hero down a path of violence, hardship, and sacrifice. It was the darkness–a primal force of creation and chaos passed down through the Estacado family for generations.
It has been roughly four years since we parted ways with The Darkness, and since then, it has changed hands from developer Starbreeze to Digital Extremes. We recently met up with publisher 2K Games to watch a demonstration of The Darkness II in motion and see what changes the new developer has in store.
Our first look at the game started off, appropriately enough, in the dark. We could hear the steady beat of a hammer not far in the distance. As our character opened his eyes, we could see that a hand–Jackie’s hand–was having a large, metal spike nailed through it. He was being crucified in the dim confines of what appeared to be a filthy torture chamber.
Our captor was apparently a mysterious crippled man who appeared to be gloating at our distress while surrounded by jackbooted thugs. As he spoke, Jackie’s gaze dropped from his punctured hand down to his midsection. A steady stream of wispy, black essence was flowing freely from his gut and into an ornate canister. We were obviously bearing witness to some dark ritual, but how did we get here?
Right on cue, a flashback transported us back to the prior events. Jackie Estacado, now the don of the Franchetti crime family, had just arrived at an opulent Italian restaurant and was being led to his specially prepared table. As he walked through the establishment, we got our first good look at The Darkness II’s new art style.
