Is the Xbox 360 already almost outdated? Are developers alreday looking towards Xbox 720? I hope not. In a recent interview, Epic senior producer Rod Fergusson shared some recent thoughts on where he thinks the Xbox 360 is going and they were not a rousing battle cry to say the least.
I mean, I’m not the technical guy… all I know is that with the two to three more years of optimization that we’ve had, we’re much further along than I think, three years ago, we thought we were going to get.
So I think we’re certainly approaching the upper end of it, as far as what developers are able to do with it, but just looking at all the demos we saw today — ours and others — it’s clear that all the games just keep improving, and keep pushing that bar.
I think it’s just a matter of, you know, it’s a slow cycle; you only get a kick at it every couple years, and so it takes a while for people to see that progress.
There will be games in development that won’t ship until 2010, and I’m sure they’ll look killer, just because, again, they’ll have more time with it, and learn from mistakes and optimizations of others. So, I don’t know; I think we’re getting up there, but I still think there’s room to grow.”
Ok. So does this mean that the best possible games we are going to see on the 360 are almost here and we can expect everything to plateau until the next next gen shows up? I doubt MS appreciates this and I’m sure a response is imminent.
This one got me a bit excited. I’m a huge fan of gaming and sci-fi related books and have read all the Halo novels. It pleases me to hear that Gears of War will be getting a trilogy set of books in the near future. The first book, written by Karen Traviss, will go on sale October 28th, 2008.
In GEARS OF WAR: THE BATTLE OF ASPHO FIELDS, the last human stronghold on Sera braces itself for another onslaught from the Locust Horde, as ghosts come back to haunt Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago. For Marcus — decorated war hero, convicted traitor — the return of an old comrade threatens to dredge up an agonizing secret he’s sworn to keep. As the beleaguered soldiers of the Coalition of Ordered Governments take a last stand to save humankind from extermination, the harrowing decisions made at Aspho Fields have to be relived and made again. Marcus and Dom can take anything the Locust Horde throws at them — but will their friendship survive the truth about Dom’s brother Carlos?
Sounds good to me. I’m sure I’ll pick this one up to check out while I’m playing Gears of War 2 this Fall.
Our friends over at Epic were hard at work bringing us Unreal Tournament for the Xbox 360. UT3 for the 360 has great looking visuals that really go hand in hand with the intense pace of the game.
You can play UT3 in single or multiplayer modes. In single player mode, you are paired up with bots to achieve certain objectives while you learn the buttons and new weapons. There are plenty of matches to experience, such as Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Vehicle Capture the Flag, Warfare, and Duel. Single player serves its purpose for you to get a feel of the game by showing you different maps and game types, but really gets kind of old quickly. The bots that assist you during single player action can be less than helpful at times and matches like CTF can become long and boring because of the lack of support. Read More »
Some say this was taken out of context, but he said what he said.
“Games aren’t movies and aren’t consumed in a single sitting” explains Bleszinski, “Metal Gear Solid is our example of the game we’re not doing. Passive entertainment is on its way out.”
I would not expect extended cutscenes and active camo in Gears 2. We all knew this already, so why did he take a shot or sorts at what some consider the greatest game of this generation? Some people like run and gun and some like crawl and gun. I, personally just like really fun games. Gears 2 has to be a killer, and I mean, killer app because with GTA IV and MGS4, he could be looking at a bronze medal for Game of the Year at best.
OK I am sorry I called you Cliffy B, he would much rather prefer being called Cliff Bleszinski from Epic Games, to have that more mature feel, but the reality is that everyone knows him as Cliffy B.
This video is brought to you by our good friend over at Gamerscore Blog, Chris Paladino, who says he was nervous about speaking with Cliff, doesn’t show in the video so no worries. I like the new chainsaw battles gameplay with the player that hits B the most winning the fight.
Epic Studios has the Herculean task of improving on one of the most beloved games of this generation. How do they fix what some people called near perfection? Easy. Make the game a shit ton bigger. Cliffy B, head of Epic had this to say when asked about the upcoming blockbuster:
“[Unreal Engine has] never stopped evolving,” Cliff told CVG in San Francisco last week. “The character lighting is vastly improved, the environment is chippable and the tress get knocked down as physics objects.
“There’s just so much shit going on, it’s five times bigger this time. I think it shows the engines got smoother.”
We can all expect something to behold this holiday season when we continue to fight the Locust horde. How much to expect is still in question but everyone involved in the project is convinced GoW2 will be the game to play this Christmas.
We’ve seen the trailers, we’ve seen the interviews, now we have some pretty screenshots on which to gaze our eyes.
We’ve really only scratched the surface of the game in terms of what has been released and already the hype is extremely high. I hope the final product holds up.
During a recent interview at the EA Games Studio Showcase in London, BioWare boss Ray Muzyka said the following about the Mass Effect content in the new PC version:
“It’s the same content, just in higher resolution,” he said of the alien sex scene in the PC version of Mass Effect. “So it looks really good, right? We’re happy and we’re proud of the content that’s in the game. We think it’s appropriate for the rating the game has – it’s a ‘mature’ rated game. It’s tasteful and it’s not gratuitous. It’s actually adult-themed content of relationships, mature relationships that are very realistically depicted and actually very appropriate as well, and very emotionally impactful.”
Good for Bioware! I am glad that they stand behind their product and are not afraid to push the enevlope and did not back down and cut it from their PC version of the game. To exclude the sex scene would have been horrible and a giant step backwards for video games in general. Mass Effect is one of the rare games that not only included nudity, but reallly incorporated it into their storyline. To hear this from Ray Muzyka just confirms my thoughts on the subject, the rating system is there for a reason and a game like Mass Effect that decides to include some mature content makes sense since it is rated M. I can only hope that Bioware continues to push the genre and the ratings board, there needs to be more developers with guts enough to stand up to the media and their narrow minded thoughts.
It seems that every gaming studio is starting to voice their opinions when prompted. The times of biting one’s tongue as to not piss of the powers that be are no longer here. The latest salvo in shit talkin’ goes to Epic president, Michael Capps. When asked if Epic would make software for the Wii, well, just read:
Comparing the Wii to a virus, he explained the epidemic as a chain reaction of sort.When someone sees a Wii, they’ll think it looks cool, buy it, and then stop playing it after two months. But, a friend will see their Wii, think it looks fun, and buy one for themselves. The cycle continues, even though people stop playing their Wiis once the novelty wears off.
Wow. Giant teabag dropped right thurr. Sadly, I have to agree in part here. I acquired a Wii through eBay and probably overpaid. I put a ton of time into Zelda and played a bunch of Smash, but thats it. It looks good in my home entertainent system, yet its collecting dust. Aside from the killer aps, their is not that much to do on it. Online multiplayer is non-existant and besides some drunken bowling, I have not played it much at all. I do have hope for the Wii, but GTA and MGS4 are going to be monsters and for the next few months, many Wii’s will be collecting dust.
Want to see some locusts get jacked up in cool art styles? Your chance is coming as DC Comics will be brining Marcus, Dom, and all your favorite chainsaw wielding heroes to the comics. The series is set to come from DC’s WildStorm publishing imprint in October.
“Big guns and monsters — what a perfect comic book for WildStorm! We have an opportunity to work closely with Epic to add to the canon of the Gears of War mythos, so you can imagine how excited we all are, said Hank Kanalz, VP – General Manager, WildStorm. “Epic sets the bar very high, in graphics, story, and gameplay — and expect no less from our series, starting with our lead-in arc that fills in the gaps between the first game and the upcoming sequel.”
Could be good. Hopefully they come up with a good storyline and don’t just take what’s in the games.
We're like Spaceballs... we're making Loot Ninja everything. Coming soon we'll have hats, shirts, hoodies, possibly banana hammocks if one Editor has his way...
Check out the shirt prototypes here and the hats here
