Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming

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Sunday, September 13, 2009

Emergent updates

I'm gearing up for the Game Developers Conference in Austin (I'm in TX now), prepping presentations for new stuff that's coming down the pipe for stuff from the company.

Catch up with us while we're in the Capital City, and contact me if you need to.

A few new games are out (or will be relatively soon).

Hidden Path Entertainment's Defense Grid: The Awakening, out for a while on Steam, is now out on XBLA. I've fawned about (on?) this game before, and it's now doing well on Microsoft's service, too.

Monkey Labs is a new educational video game from Larian Studios -- the same folks making Divine Divinity 2: Ego Draconis. I so dig the diversity of this studio, building a top-tier RPG and the next generation of edutainment titles.

While not new, Wizard101, from KingsIsle Entertainment, Inc., is doing wicked well, and seems to be everywhere. This multi-age MMO is celebrating a year, touting millions of users, has a post mortem in this month's Game Developer Magazine, and is doing a session or two at GDC Austin.

That's good for now. Catch up with me in Austin if you can.

Labels: Emergent Game Technologies, Gamebryo, RPG

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Gary Gygax, dead at 69

Gary Gygex, Co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, died in his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, at 69 years old.

There's probably a hit points joke in there somewhere, but I'm just too saddened by our loss of another creative entrepreneur.

Whatever your feeling about D&D, fellow creative Warren Spector maybe sums it up best (for me):

"what most folks don't appreciate is how special, how ground-breaking it was as the first medium of expression to turn anyone who played into a storyteller, into an author, into a creator. Not a bad legacy for a pioneering game guy..."

Labels: game design, RPG, table top

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Sunday, January 06, 2008

The Games of 2008: Q3, Q4, and TBD

The Games of 2008: Q2

(See also, "The Games of 2008: Q1".)

The further out we go into the year, the more sketchy things get on the release front.

But here are the games that ring my bell to one degree or another for the second quarter of this year.

Grand Theft Auto IV (X360, PS3) -- Dunno about you, but this iteration of the GTA franchise (with its displaced, unwilling Russian anti-hero) might actually pull me in. If I don't play it, it's because all of the meta stuff irritates me -- namely, "Hot Coffee" and Manhunt irresponsibility.

Rez HD (XBLA) -- Weird(ish), on-rails(ish), shooter(ish) game from Q Entertainment / Hexa Drive.

PlayStation Home (PS3) -- Sony is late -- but ambitious -- to the console online party dominated by Xbox Live. I'm curious to see how this Second Life / Xbox Achievements mashup thing either innovates, or looks like a late, console(ish), poor man's Second Life / Xbox Achievements ripoff.

Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution (X360, PS3, DS) -- This strategy games been on the PC forever, and now it's bringing its hard-coreness to the console and handheld space.

de Blob (Wii) -- Painting stuff in games as a game mechanic is the New Hotness, and THQ's jumping in with new IP.

Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball (X360) -- It's "Pirates vs. Ninjas", and published by Gamecock. Golden!

LittleBigPlanet (PS3) -- This game looks artsy and stylish and fun. How cool would it be if this became the PS3 console-seller?

Brothers In Arms Hell's Highway (X360, PC) -- Gearbox Software keeps revisiting WWII, and not only does it not feel tired, it feels important.

Iron Man (PS2, PC, X360, PS3, PSP, WII, DS) -- Yes, it's a movie tie-in, but it's a comic book tie-in. Yes, a lot of comic book games suck beyond belief, but I like comic books, and this title looked good at Comic-Con last year. So they're going to have had ten months to finish, tune, and polish the game.

Spore (PC) -- If this ever comes out, its modern incarnation of a god game may be one of the most innovative titles released this decade.

Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy (X360, PS3) -- I like the folks at High Moon Studios, and the time they're taking with title -- which will launch well outside of the film vehicle -- keeps me interested. I wish they'd rename it, though; I'm tired of the whole "[bigNameIwantToSeeInLights] + [longTitle]" formula.

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (PC) -- It is so time for this MMO.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3) -- Hideo Kojima wants to do something important with games. This is going to probably be his best something important.

Left 4 Dead (X360, PC) -- More zombie games. Always need more zombie games.

Hellboy: Science of Evil (X360, PS3, PSP) -- The footage and grabs from one of my favorite comic book franchises gives me the warm fuzzies.

Legendary: The Box (X360, PS3, PC) -- Hate the game name, but I dig the Pandora's Box device to populate the world with the mythological beasties I love. Then kill them, FPS-style.

Hail to the Chimp (X360, PS3) -- Wideload Games rocks (go play Stubbs the Zombie), and Hail to the Chimp looks to be a funny, politically themed brawler with the same trademark humor. And it's published by Gamecock Media.

Labels: action, brawlers, Microsoft, Nintendo, PC, PlayStation3, releases, RPG, RTS, Sony, Wii, XBLA

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The Games of 2008: Q1

2007 is now a distant memory, and while I've still got to finish The Orange Box, Assassin's Creed, and Mass Effect (and, um, Viva Piñata), I'm already looking to the games of 2008.

So what's up for the next year of gaming after arguably the most prolific and quality-high year in the industry? Did the industry peak in 2007? Does life after Halo 3 and Portal seem a letdown?

Here are my picks -- and don't get your Underoos in a knot if your favorite game isn't here. I'm a PC and 360 gamer, so those titles are a priority for me, as are those titles on other platforms that look compelling for artistic or commercial reasons.

So "your" game may not be here, I may have forgotten some, dates may change, the game may suck, blah blah blah, wah wah wah.

Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom (X360) -- Hey, an action RPG brawler retake on an action RTS mainstay, playable co-op over Xbox Live? I'm in (even if the demo was less than accessible).

Pirates of the Burning Sea (PC) -- An MMO that's not orcs 'n' elves?Let's see how it does. I probably won't play until the ninja community mod expansion pack kicks in.

Devil May Cry 4 (X360, PS3)-- I'm a franchise fan, and even if it's more of the same (but bigger, faster, more insane), it being available out of the gate on the 360 makes it a grabber for me.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) -- If I can get a Wii, this and Super Mario Galaxy are the two boxed titles I'm likely to buy.

Lost Odyssey (X360) -- This may be the JRPG that gets me into JRPGs (sorry, Blue Dragon). Yeah, it's Mistwalker Studios, but it's from Hironobu Sakaguchi (creator of the original Final Fantasy series), composed by FF music creator Nobuo Uematsu, art by manga creator Takehiko Inoue, and written by Japanese novelist Kiyoshi Shigematsu.

The Club (PC, PS3, X360) -- Take a top-notch racing game developer and throw them at a stylistic, Running Man-esqu thinking man's FPS? I'm in.

Turning Point: Fall of Liberty (PC, PS3, X360) -- An FPS in alternative 1950s America where the Nazis won? Of course it's on my list.

Insecticide (DS, PC) -- "Insecticide is a film noir action adventure game set in a decaying world run by bugs. " Plus it's published by Gamecock Media. Who are in Austin, TX, and make me laugh.

Condemned 2: Bloodshot (X360, PS3) -- The first Condemned is one of the strongest launch games on the 360, and it still stands up. Add a more polished version of one of my favorite other vertical game engines (Lithtech) and multiplayer, and I'm ready for another "brown trouser" excursion (thank you, Brits, for that expression).

Bully: Scholarship Edition (X360, Wii) -- Bully for Rockstar for doing something different with this game. Sure, it came out the PS2 a while ago, but this version will have new classes, new content, and achievements (on the 360). Plus, the 360 version is being built using Emergent Game Technologies's Gamebryo game engine.

Viking: Battle for Asgard (PS3, X360) -- I'm a big fan of Norse mythology, action brawlers, and SEGA. It's a lock.

Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon (PS3, X360) -- I know the writer for this, so I would suck if I didn't list it. Plus the franchise genuinely rocks on all fronts.

Haze (PS3) -- Free Radical has my eternal love for the TimeSplitters franchise (bring me TS 4!). Haze looks smart and subversive. Just bring it to 360, kids -- I'd hate to see a sales shortfall for the potential franchise by limiting yourselves to a PS3 SKU.

Labels: brawlers, Emergent Game Technologies, fighting, MMO, Nintendo, PC, PlayStation3, releases, RPG, sandbox, SEGA, shooters, Sony, Wii, Xbox 360

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Thursday, October 11, 2007

EA buys BioWare and Pandemic

Interesting.

So, Electronic Arts just worked it out with Elevation Partners to buy VG Holding Corp, which owns BioWare and Pandemic.

From a business perspective, this is a great way for EA to add top-tier Intellectual Property (IP) and talent to their stable. And it's not all that surprising a move to me, since John Riccitiello is the CEO of Electronic Arts, but was the co-founder and Managing Director of Elevation Partners before that, and the President / COO of EA before that.

It does sadden me a bit, as BioWare / Pandemic were an interesting happening in the independent developer scene. And there's a local connection for me, since "It will enable [Electronic Arts] to further the careers of the passionate, creative and hard working teams at BioWare Edmonton and BioWare Austin." (The "Austin" part is the local connection, for those non-regular readers. And welcome!)

I'm curious as to whether there are other reasons EA did this. The cynical side of me worries this is akin to the EA purchase of Criterion, which I would argue wasn't so much for the RenderWare engine, as it was for the Burnout and BLACK IP.

Also, what does this mean for the Xbox 360 exclusive Mass Effect, published (currently) by Microsoft Game Studios? Sure, it probably won't impact the first iteration, but Mass Effect is a franchise, and was a planned trilogy of titles (at the least). Sure, there was no guarantee before that the game would stay an Xbox 360-exclusive, but given the "we'll finish it this hardware generation" mindset, it would be hard to envision it on other systems as well -- EA is arguably the king of multi-SKU titles (to be fair, so are other commercially successful big dogs like Activision and THQ).

And what about other deals? Like the BioWare / SEGA deal for the Sonic RPG?

Almost more importantly, will all of this impact EA's BLACK sequel on the 360? I'm kinda waiting for an update on that. It came out during an investment call update. Now, nothing.

But really, as long as the BioWare / Pandemic people are taken care of, the other stuff is pretty academic.

(As an aside, I don't really care about console exclusives, per se. I just want the games on the platforms I own to rock. Devil May Cry 4 and Orange Box for everyone? Suh-weet. Dead Rising and Lost Planet quality across multiple platforms? The more the merrier.)

Labels: announcements, BioWare, companies, Microsoft, RPG

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Wednesday, August 08, 2007

38 Studios

Why are there not stories six ways to Sunday about 38 Studios?

Formerly Green Monster Games, the smartly renamed game studio that had been unfairly simplified as "the house that Curt Schilling built". (If you don't know who Curt is, go away, become wise in the ways of history, and return.)

The Maynard, MA-headquartered game development studio is a machine of creativity and proven-ticket-producing industry folks.

There's Brett Close as President and CEO (probably so he doesn't get bored), who helped build the Midway Austin studio (and has done it at least a couple of other times, with EA-LA and VR1).

There's Todd McFarlane as the Creative Art Director and Concept Artist. Todd's a self-espoused "pop-culture machine", and I'll totally give him that.

There's R.A. "I killed Chewbacca and gave you Drizzt Do'Urden" Salvatore as Director of Creative Content / Storywriter (sorry about the Drizzt spoiler).

There are also super respected games industry folks like Scott Cuthbertson, Chaz Sutherland, Brian Jones, Steve Danuser, and on and on.

They're working on an MMORPG (yeah, so's my grandma).

But they're going to make it big. They're going to make it good. They say they're keeping the basic formula simple (Toddy actually said that; that's saying something for Toddy; wonder if he hates being called "Toddy").

They'll also be looking at media intersection with wireless and comic books and other media. I'm sure they'll be looking at licensing (pfft, it's McFarlane -- are you surprised? Dude just opened a McFarlane store in AZ).

I'm excited to see what they produce. I know of these guys, and know a few of them (a little).

They're in my family's stomping grounds back East. They know their stuff. Brett knows the importance of running a studio without burning out everyone in the studio.

Good times.

Check out their Website. Look at the handful of carefully timed news stories (IGN.com even has videos of 'em). Feed your cursor the green monster on the site (I'm thinking of turning it into a drinking game).

Labels: announcements, companies, media intersection, MMO, RPG

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Thursday, July 05, 2007

Pre-E3 coverage ...

Next week is E3, and even though it's a scaled-down, arguably insiders affair, the pre-coverage is pretty hefty, and pretty exciting.

GameSpot.com now has their E3 microsite up, and is tracking a wealth of E3, and tertiarilly E3 happenings, as is IGN.com.

Also, Eurogamer has (an at least current for now) list of the games of E3.

Not everything at E3 will be playable, but I'm looking forward to the playable, new announcements (a la Electronic Arts), and if anything anecdotally interesting comes out of the parties (mostly because I like the slant alliteration of the phrase "anecdotally interesting").

So what am I excited about? (List scalped from Kotaku.com, who scalped it from Eurogamer, who really should have just pointed to IGN.com.)

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3, Xbox 360) -- CoD is a stellar franchise, and I want to see what they do to the modern world.
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) -- Battlefield, but with a cooler mythos. Hope it runs better than Quake IV.
Spiderman: Friend or Foe -- Anything comic book related for me. Anything.
The Witcher (PC) -- Dark, twisted, adult-themed RPG with moral ambiguity? Sounds like my toy job!
Fallout 3 -- Middlingly. I'm a big Fallout franchise fan, but this one's a ways out.
Devil May Cry 4 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) -- You seriously don't need me to explain, do you?
Rocketmen: Axis of Evil (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) -- "The game is a top-down action title that is something of a mix of an old-school stage crawler with Robotron controls.... you advance through levels while plowing through countless numbers of unnamed soldiers."
Talisman (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) -- I think online board games are the New Hotness. Or the new flash-in-the-pan. Which still makes them hot. And this one is a fantasy-themed boardgame with 4-way play.
Cliver Barker's Jericho (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) -- Cliver Barker's Undying has some of the best audio on a game to date. And it had good gameplay. And Clive Barker's a talented storyteller. Twisted, but talented.
Rise of the Argonauts (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) -- Like comic books, anything mythology related. Please don't suck.
Turning Point: Fall of Liberty (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) -- In this alternate history FPS, the cab that hit Winston Churchill kills him, and the Nazis take over Europe. Now, it's 1952, and they're invading America.
Age of Conan (PC, Xbox 360) -- Bloody good fun.
Hellgate: London (PC) -- Just because I still like the premise, have been rooting for it for a long time, and want to see how the free-versus-subscribtion thing works out for them (and us).
Medal of Honor Airborne (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) -- Gameplay videos have been me excited about the franchise again.
The Simpsons (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, PSP, DS) -- Hey, Matt Groening is the final boss!
Dungeon Hero (PC, Xbox 360) -- I have this unnatural attachment to all things GameCock (even if they don't return my Emails). But this is a dungeon crawler without the boredom. Sign me up!
Fury (PC) -- MMO without the grinding? PvP? Maybe I'll see you in the demo this weekend.
Hail to the Chimp (PS3, Xbox 360) -- Love this game. Man crush on Wideload and Alexander Seropian. 'Nuff said.
Mushroom Men (Wii, DS) -- Oddworld aesthetic. 'Shrooms. Need I go on?
Two unannounced titles from GameCock (One's probably Section 8)
Metal Gear Solid 4 -- I'd love an Xbox 360 announcement on this next week, but the game alone, with its hopefully challenging moral mechanics and deep storytelling, has got my attention.
Fracture -- This "terra-deforming-as-weapon" from LucasArts has be sweaty palmed. No new news on The Force Unleashed, though?
Kengo: Legend of the 9 (Xbox 360) -- I think this is Majesco's first next-gen game (it's at least their first 360 game). Looking for more info, but looks like a Dynasty Warriors-esque take with 9 historical Japanese figures.
Blue Dragon (Xbox 360) -- Really want to play this bad boy ...
Fable 2 (xbox 360) -- The single-player RPG to beat on the original Xbox, let's see what the former Lionheads do under Microsoft's watch.
Halo 3 (Xbox 360) -- You think this wouldn't make the list?
Halo Wars (Xbox 360) -- Just for the trailer. Fortunately, leaks about the RTS gameplay have been positive. But they have to go up against Tom Clancy's Endwar.
Lost Odyssey (Xbox 360) -- Gorgeous. Just brutal and gorgeous. "We are the Knights Who Say Ne -- Oh SWEET MOTHER! MY EYES! MY EYES!" [*gushing blood*]
Mass Effect (Xbox 360) -- RPG of the century? Mayhap.
Unannounced XBLA titles (Xbox 360) -- Knock my socks off. You keep dissing my proposals, but you keep giving me stuff I like. So we're good.
John Woo's Stranglehold (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) -- I'm excited about this. More I see, I'm excited.
Unreal Tournament 3 (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) -- Unreal Championship II was under-appreciated, maybe because it was a gamers game. This looks to be that and more.
Beautiful Katamari (Xbox 360) -- We've suffered long enough without beauty, thank you very much.
Dynasty Warriors: GUNDAM (PS3) -- Honestly, I just want to see if they can take this Artichoke and jelly mix and make it work.
AION (PC) -- An MMO without grinding, and a leveling system "not like you'd expect"? Demons versus angels (ish)? Wings for both factions (no @#$%^&! earning mounts crap)?
Dungeon Runners (PC) -- I'm playing the free version of this MMO from NCsoft, and really enjoying it.
Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa (PC) -- He gets to put his name on it. I want to support that.
Condemned 2 (PS3, Xbox 360) -- Sequel to the early Xbox 360 sleeper hit, now bloodier, with a revamped combat system and (wait for it!) multiplayer!
Gas Powered Games' RPG (PC) -- I respect GPG, so I'm waiting to see this.
Iron Man -- Anything. Comic book. Related. (Anything.)
TimeShift (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) -- Rescued from ~~the steaming pile of crap~~ not being all it could be, the revamp looks to wow.
Heavenly Sword (PS3) -- This could be a console seller for Sony. Hey, it got teased on Heroes.
Killzone 2 (PS3) -- C'mon, show me something to wash the tast of the lied about "not-prerendered" debacle.
LittleBigPlanet (PS3) -- Have you seen the videos? How fun is this?
The Agency -- An MMO from Sony that's not fantasy-themed, and not half-baked sci-fi license. Just don't be stealing from the DC MMO talent pool, kids.
BioShock (PC, Xbox 360) -- I want to play this game. And struggle with the choices I've made.
De Blob -- THQ is a savvy publisher. And I really like the art aesthetic.
Assassin's Creed (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) -- I think they're hiding the full awesomeness that is this game.
FEAR sequel (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) -- The first made me almost soil myself. Raise the bar, Warner.

This is just the stuff we know about. I'm hoping we get some surprises from folks not yet announced. Certain Affinity. Junction Point. More GameCock than you can shake a stick at. And so on.

Labels: action, announcements, BioWare, brawlers, companies, E3 2007, Epic Games, events, Halo, PC, PlayStation3, previews, RPG, RTS, SEGA, shooters, Unreal Engine 3, XBLA, Xbox 360, Xbox Live

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Thursday, June 21, 2007

BioWare + Sonic = SONIC RPG

So, BioWare just announced they'll be partnering with SEGA to bring a Sonic The Hedgehog RPG to the Nintendo DS.

While I didn't see this coming, it's not that weird to me. I mean, there's a Mario RPG for the DS, and it's pretty good. And if you want someone to do an RPG, I think you want it to be BioWare.

Michael Fahey over at Kotaku.com is having trouble with it, though.

Labels: announcements, BioWare, Nintendo, RPG, SEGA

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