G4tv.com has 3 massive interviews with Epic Games’ finest (talking about Dark Corners) and a detailed look at Muramasa: The Demon Blade in a brand new video feature.
G4 talks to Cliff Bleszinski in a interview about Unreal, the importance of creating original IP’s, game mechanics, his thoughts on motion control, pricing on premium downloadable content and using community feedback to tweak his games. You can check out that interview here.
Next up is Epic Games Founder Tim Sweeney, who talks about new Unreal 3 Engine tools, using Unreal 3 Engine for online game development, his thoughts on OnLive, the current generation of gaming consoles, the challenges of digital distribution, and a whole lot more. That interview can be found here.
Finally, Gears of War Franchise Executive Producer Rod Fergusson talks about the Dark Corners sneaking mechanic, talk of adding more campaign DLC (like Baird and Cole’s side adventure through the sewers), designing proper pacing into Gears of War and new Gears of War avatar items. You can find that interview here - and be sure to check out G4’s hands-on with Dark Corners for even more information.
On an unrelated front, X-Play takes a closer look at Muramasa: The Demon Blade, including new gameplay video featuring one of the bosses, the game’s RPG elements, info on the 108 different swords, the game’s difficulty, and more. Find that after the break.
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Nemesis Online to follow Champions Online?
I remember many years ago when City of Heroes was announced and i’d had the chance to grill Jack Emmert about the game. One of the first things I asked him was “will users be able to play as villains?” The answer was an emphatic yes. Seeing the regularity and frequency of that question being asked, Cryptic decided that it really needed to have that Villain system in place, so instead of building it from scratch, the developers simply used the City of Heroes technology, changed it a little and pushed it out because they only had a year to do it.
With Champions Online Cryptic wants to once again offer players the chance to be a villain, but this time it won’t rush things, according to this news report.
This information comes from this G4 Jack Emmert interview, where he gives the dark side of the MMO world, Nemesis Online, some attention. Here’s an excerpt:
G4: So, if you were to make – I don’t know what the opposite of Champions Online would be –
JE: Nemesis Online.
G4: Nemesis Online! Is that something you’ve talked about?
JE: Yes, we have. Look, if Champions is successful and people want that, heck yeah. But, I think that I already have a very different idea in mind for that. I think in City of Villains, we were asked to make the game in about a year, and so we were kind of focused on “We gotta get this done.” So, we just took the template of City of Heroes and copied it. If I were to do it over again, I would create a very different type of gameplay for villain worlds.
So is the future going to be Nemesis Online after Champions Online is complete? If fans want it, yes - but the moral of this story is don’t expect as fast a turn-around as we saw with City of Villains.
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How Serious Sam HD could be on PlayStation Network
Last week it was revealed that Croteam was working on an HD re-release of its popular first-person shooter for PC and Xbox Live Arcade. Conspicuously absent from that news was mention of a PlayStation Network version of the game. PS3 owners may have been wondering why Croteam would avoid trying to bringing to PSN. As Ascaron can tell you, developing games on multiple platforms can literally kill your company (see Sacred 2). But beyond the money, the man hours and the resources needed to develop on multiple platforms, there has to be a demand for the game - especially if it has to come out later than other versions..
To fill in the blanks, G4 spoke to Croteam CEO Roman Ribaric, who explained the reasoning on passing on a PSN version - at least for now. When Croteam decided to create an HD version of the game, the PSN was a part of that equation. But it wasn’t until the company tried to secure funding for it that it realized that it wasn’t going to happen right away. They tried finding another team to work on the game as well but couldn’t find a developer willing to commit to.
The only solution they could come up with was to create a PSN version after the PC and Xbox Live versions were complete. But again, problems arose:
“We [have considered] doing PSN after we finish PC and XBLA,” said Ribaric. “However, we keep hearing over and over from publishers, investors, marketing and other suits that players from one console, in this case PSN, wouldn’t want to get it later, let’s say eight months and seven days after, if it’s released sooner on the other console, here that would be XBLA. I would normally say that’s a lot of bull, but I will refrain here from my comment. What do your readers think?”
And so, that is where the PSN version’s fate lies: with you. If Croteam gets a strong enough response for a PSN version to be released at some point later, will you buy it?
“It would feel perfect to have it on PSN as well,” Ribaric added. “However, we are a garage team of 20 people, although with a larger garage now, working on Serious Sam HD for PC and XBLA platforms. Along that, we are developing Serious Sam 3 and Serious Engine 3 tech for both platforms. Now, I know we are good, but we are not that good to add PSN and finish at the same time. Just kidding, we are that good, but we are not supermen.”
There’s a bit more to the story, which you can only find on G4TV.com. Read it and then sound off if you want Serious Sam HD on the PlayStation Network. Or not.
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The MMO Report
This week on G4’s MMO Report, guest host Morgan Webb talks about CCP’s new game, Star Wars: The Old Republic’s Smuggler class, Warhammer Online’s Land of the Dead and even gives a shout out to Crispy Gamer. You can check it out below - and if you are looking for that Turbine interview, you can find it right here.
The games we're pulling together in this feature won't appear on any of those best-of lists and get confused looks when you mention them in conversation. Just because time has forgotten these titles, though, doesn't mean you should forget them, too.
