Dining With Developers, Vol. 2: Haden Blackman, Part 1
4/16/2009 7:17 PM | 7 Comments | Page 1 of 8
Scott Jones
Status: Coffee makes me feel 4-percent sexier.
(Contributors: Evan Narcisse and Victor Lucas)
The place: XYZ Restaurant at the W Hotel
The address: 181 3rd Street
The time: 7 p.m.
The cuisine: Slightly Asian-infused Americana
Special guest: Adam Kahn, PR specialist for LucasArts
The service: Decent enough.
Other journo sightings: George Jones, GamePro
Price: $$$$
The conversation: Priceless.
[Evan Narcisse, Victor Lucas and I sat down with Haden Blackman and Adam Kahn of LucasArts. Adam was there, basically, to make sure that Haden didn't lose his head and tell us the company's secrets -- at least, not all of them.
Haden Blackman
The meal began, as usual, with Narcisse ordering appetizers for the table, including an ahi tartare featuring pickled cucumber, avocado puree and something called "crostini." Schmanzy. The CG staff sure is one classy bunch of mo-fos. Victor Lucas twice requested the baby beet salad. OK, we get it, Vic; you love beets. Me, I ordered a beer infused with a pungent beer smell, as did Haden. As Haden downed his first beer, aka Magic Truth Serum, we braced ourselves for the truth behind one of my favorite games of last year:
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.]
Scott Jones: First things first.
I was a big fan of the The Force Unleashed, and was really disappointed by the negative press the game received. I remember Evan and Victor and myself all looking at one another and saying, "Hey, why are all these reviews so bad? Because I'm kind of really enjoying this game..."
Haden Blackman: [Looks at Kahn] Can I talk about reviews?
Adam Kahn: When it comes to reviews, I say let it out. Say what you want to say.
Blackman: Really?
Kahn: Yes. Don't name names or anything. You have feelings about how the review process was, and what the reviews were. Let's let it out.
Jones: I was at Insomniac when the bad
Resistance 2 reviews were breaking. (One of which was mine.)
[Laughter] But you could see each review as it would go through the office; it would literally take the air out of the office. You don't realize from a reviewer's and journalist's perspective how heavy these moments really are. To see it happen in real time, as people were IMing links through the office, it made it tangible to me. What was it like for you [and the
TFU team]?
Blackman: It was weird. We had some early reviews that were like, "OK, this is great." Can I name names on the positive side?
Kahn: Sure.
Blackman: Like the
Play Magazine review. Unfortunately,
Play didn't have a score attached, so it didn't get pulled into the Metacritic rankings, which kind of blows. So that was good. But I think Adam actually had a harder job than I did. Because I turned into a nightmare for a two-week period. I'd get these reviews, and I'd be like, "Aw, these guys are irresponsible. How could they say this?" And I'm firing off stuff [to Adam]. But part of it, as you said, is that I'm watching this team that has worked so hard on this game for two, almost three years. And they're reading this stuff. And you're right; all the air gets sucked out of the room. People were miserable for the whole day. It's hard to keep them focused. And we were working on DLC already at this point, on Jedi Temple, so I'd say, You guys need to keep focused. Come on, it's just one review.
