RipTen Videogame Blog » Interviews

Ninja Gaiden 3 and Sigma Plus PSVita Hands-On, Team Studio Head Interview

Michael Futter — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:30:18 +0000

In a small room in mid-town Manhattan yesterday, I joined up with several journalists to sample the best of what Tecmo Koei had to offer in the coming months. After getting comfortable on the couch with a Playstation Vita in my hand, I was introduced to Yosuke Hayashi, head of Team Ninja. He was generous enough to answer a few questions about the Vita launch title, Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus and the much-anticipated Ninja Gaiden 3.

The Vita update of the original Ninja Gaiden looks gorgeous. The controls are still as fluid as I remember, and with the power of the hardware and button configuration, it felt exactly like playing with a gamepad. The touchscreen is used for entering first-person mode quickly, which makes it useful but not intrusive into the experience.

Michael Futter: Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. It’s great to be able to see both of these titles, Hayabusa’s beginning and his latest adventure, side-by-side. Can you tell me what prompted you to bring back the original Ninja Gaiden story for the Vita’s launch?

Yosuke Hayashi: Bringing Ninja Gaiden to the Vita in the form of Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus was a great fit. First, we had a very limited time frame to prepare a game for the Vita, so it made sense to bring Ninja Gaiden to a new audience. Also, this will help get people excited about the franchise with the release of Ninja Gaiden 3 coming so soon.

MF: What were some of the challenges and some of the joys in adapting the original Ninja Gaiden to the new hardware?

YH: For the development team, it is always fun to work on new hardware. The tight time frame made it challenging, but Team Ninja sees the challenge as part of the fun.

MF: Given how difficult the Ninja Gaiden series is, I can tell you take that to heart. Speaking of which, what can we expect in terms of challenge for both Sigma Plus and Ninja Gaiden 3?

YH: Handheld systems aren’t exactly like cell phones, but people now expect to be able to pick up a game and play for a short amount of time. Because of that, we wanted Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus to be accessible to casual players. We’ve added a “Hero Mode” for this audience. While the Normal and Hard modes will still provide the challenge that the series is known for, Hero mode gives a helping hand with auto-blocking and auto-evading when you are wounded. You can always switch down to this difficulty level, too, if you want to try the game out on the normal difficulty.

MF: Finally, what did you learn from working with the Vita hardware? What will you take with you to your next project on the system?

YH: Adapting the game for a broader audience was a challenge. We didn’t want to take anything away from the challenge that fans love, but we wanted as many people to feel comfortable experiencing it as possible. Hero mode solves both problems. We brought that sensibility to Ninja Gaiden 3, also. You can switch to Hero Mode at any time in that game.

I’m excited to give the full version a go when it arrives. I loved the original Ninja Gaiden, but hit a brick wall with the difficulty. I’m thrilled to finally be able to go back and finish it, with Hero Mode if necessary. It sounds and looks as good as you remember it, which is an impressive feat given the fog of nostalgia.

Activision CEO Talks About Transparency, Getting Past the Modern Warfare 3 Leak

Chad Lakkis — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:48:09 +0000

Current Activision CEO, Eric Hirshberg, gave an interesting speech at Advertising Age’s Creativity and Technology event during CES this year, one that focused on the company’s approach when dealing with the massive Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 leak that hit the web in a big way back on May 13th, 2011.

He talked about fans of the franchise, and how they had every right to enjoy the information and discuss it via the multitude of online social outlets that propigate the web today. He went on to say that he implored his team to embrace the leak and live on, to view it as an opportunity instead of an obstacle. Eric called a meeting within Activision to answer one simple question, “if this leak had never happened, we would not have been able to do what?” The answer in short, revolved around the concept of welcoming “transparency” and being “straight with people.” He often used the term “lean into it,” telling his team to embrace the fire, to embrace the discussion. To ask themselves why they would normally rejoice at the notion of millions of fans discussing their game, but with this instance found themselves cringing at it simply because they did not control the moment and means which it was revealed.

Ultimately, Eric and his team decided to use the social media avenues, he described as a “blessing,” to reach out to their fanbase, admit the leak was not something they wanted to see happen, and release a teaser trailer they had planned to debut on television 4 weeks later, via the internet at that very moment instead. Traditional means such as radio and television were replaced with Facebook and Twitter.

While I think Eric’s candor and willingness to think outside the box is refreshing to say the least, some may not fully understand the lesson to be learned here for the next company that finds themselves in the same unfortunate situation. Is he suggesting they offer up their shirt when caught with their pants down? Is he asking that they openly embrace defeat, by changing their outlook? Does he want them to use Jedi mind tricks to shrink what most would see as a massive problem into something that could easily be tucked into the category of “don’t sweat the small stuff?”

The comic in me compares this to an individual realizing that there’s a burgler in their home as they head down to the fridge for a midnight snack, and instead of calling 911 (or shooting him between the eyes) they ask him if he needs a hand carrying their 60′ flat screen out the front door. Why? Because they’d rather get back to eating left over chicken wings in their bunny slippers.

On one level, yes, they didn’t allow the effort of another individual to ruin their “Feng shui” as they approached a highly anticipated product launch, but on the other, they broke away from their rollout strategy, essentially waving what some will deem a white flag to an internet community that, while great in a many ways, is often guilty of harboring criminals for their own informational gain.

Eric and his team had a choice. The freedom to decide whether or not they were going to let a situation that was clearly out of their control steer them off course. In the end, they found a way to rise above it all despite the disappointment they undoubtedly felt at the time of the leak.

Years ago, a friend of mine, who now runs one of the biggest movie blogs on the web, was approached by (let’s call him a thief) who had lifted information off the set of a blockbuster movie prior to it’s release. He approached my friend and asked him if he would be interested in purchasing said information for publication on his site. My friend said he would think about and call him back. Instead he contacted the studio and arranged a sting operation of sorts, after convincing the individual that he was interested in making the deal. Police apprehended him and my friend was later rewarded with an exclusive director sit down session by the studio for doing what he believed to be the right thing.

On a day where many sites, including RipTen, are making black out tributes in recognition of SOPA and PIPA protests, Eric’s calm approach to his company’s dillema and my friend’s clear conscience decision regarding his own, are prime “reaction” and “action” examples pertaining to both the “outcome” and “opportunity” of unlawful information distribution and the internet freedom we all stand to possibly lose.

It’s my belief that the majority of the problem lies in the choices we make, not in our right to make them. Regardless of which side of the information we find ourselves on, we should always strive to make sound decisions that we’re not afraid to stand behind, and fight to preserve our rights, not because we hope to someday abuse them, but because we truly believe we’ve earned them.

Hideo Kojima Says He Would Have Made Metal Gear Rising Slower and More “Bushido”

Dave Oshry — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:00:10 +0000

Not much was known about Metal Gear Solid: Rising (now Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance) until now.

The fast paced 3rd person action title being developed by Platinum Games (of Bayonetta fame) is a far cry from what Metal Gear fans are used to.

When I had the chance to speak with famed series creator Hideo Kojima before the 2011 Spike TV Video Game Awards on Saturday, I asked him how he felt about what the team at Platinum had done with Rising, without him leading the way. His replies were interesting, but I wouldn’t truly see why until after the world premeire trailer later that night:

As you can see, Kojima-san said that if he had made Rising, the outcome of the game wouldn’t be as speedy as the game they are making now, and in fact it would be a lot more Bushido-esque.

For reference, let’s take a look at the trailer for Rising:

That is certainly not slow, and certainly not Bushido.

Now, for those of you not familiar with the term Bushido, you should know that is it the code or way of the samurai.

If we look to Bushido, the Soul of Japan, by Inazo Nitobe (written in 1905) it is defined in part as:

The sense of honour, implying a vivid consciousness of personal dignity and worth, which could not fail to characterise the samurai, born and bred to value the duties and privileges of their profession.

The discipline of fortitude on the one hand, endurance without a groan, and the teaching of politeness on the other, requiring us not to mar the pleasure or serenity of another by expressions of our own sorrow or pain, combined to engender a stoical turn of mind, and eventually to confirm it into a national trait of apparent stoicism.

Perhaps what Kojima-san envisions is a game where a lot more attention is paid to not only the stoic and honorable sword wielder, but the sword itself, and the long and bloody relationship between the two.

In that respect, Nitobe writes:

So precious an object cannot long escape the notice and the skill of artists nor the vanity of its owner, especially in times of peace.

Too often did the blade flash forth from its peaceful sheath. The abuse sometimes went so far as to try the acquired steel on some harmless creature’s neck.

The question that concerns us most is, however,–Did Bushido justify the promiscuous use of the weapon?

A dastard or a braggart was he who brandished his weapon on undeserved occasions. A self-possessed man knows the right time to use it, and such times come but rarely.

Perhaps we would see a game that pays much more attention to why and how Raiden kills, and see his swordfighting movements in a much more traditional samurai-esque and even a “romantic” way. I would certainly need a lot more time with Kojima-san to know for sure.

So, are you satisfied with how the fast paced Rising is turning out? Or would you have preferred a slower, more Bushido-esque swordfighting game helmed by Kojima-san?

Regardless of what you think of the direction Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is taking, the man himself stated that, “The team made something very different from what I do, and I like it”

If anything, I would add:

Wherever man struggles to raise himself above himself, there we see the immortal discipline of Hideo Kojima at work.

Photo Credit [OPM]

Sledgehammer Says CoD Multiplayer Wasn’t Broken, They’ve Just Made It Better

Dave Oshry — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 18:30:38 +0000

As you probably know by know, there’s some pretty big changes coming to the multiplayer in Modern Warfare 3.

However, legions of die hard CoD fans will say that besides the well known issues, there really wasn’t anything wrong with Modern Warfare 2′s multiplayer… so why change it? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?

Well, I recently sat down with Sledgehammer Games VP and COO Michael Condrey (not to be confused with award winning film director Michel Gondry) and asked him amongst other things, why all the changes?

So there you have it. Sledgehammer and Infinity Ward are committed to listening to the armies of Call of Duty fans worldwide in order to bring the best possible experience to all of them. Whether or not these changes will be welcomed by the community remains to be seen, but we’ll all have a pretty good idea in less than a week.

For more on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 check out the latest info HERE and be sure to stay tuned for the RipTen Review.

How Bohemia’s Take On Helicopters Will Take on The World

Murray Hibble — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 23:00:07 +0000

Released just this week, Take On Helicopters is a civilian-helicopter sim from Bohemia Interactive; you know, the guys behind the excellent ArmA series. Last week we sat down with Joris-Jan van’t Land, Take On’s Project Lead and Jay Crowe the Creative Lead to ask a few questions from a Simthusiast perspective.

RipTen: Okay guys, the question of the day is… why now and why a civilian helicopter sim?

Joris: Some of the people on the team had already been talking about the idea for a while having seen how cool helicopter flight in our previous titles was. After the PMC DLC for Operation Arrowhead we finally had the opportunity to take it from concept to a real game.

Jay: Focusing on delivering the experience of (non-lethal!) helicopter gameplay has been a refreshing (and quite challenging) change for us as developers and, we hope too, for our players!

Joris: One of the more interesting opportunities our engine allows us is to have gameplay outside of the helicopters as well. Even when looking at the currently available helicopter experiences on the market, this is something they do not offer. It completes the package.

Jay: There’s definitely a place for a civil helicopter game like Take On. We’ve presented at both gaming-media events like E3 and GC, and also at simulation expos, such as Paris. The feedback has been very encouraging.

RipTen: What has the experience of marketing TKOH been like? Have you had any resistance or incredulity (like my opening question)? In a scene that is now dominated by hardcore flight-sims, who in particular are you looking at to buy TKOH from release day?

Jay: ArmA has a strong reputation in combined arms warfare, but hardcore flight-simmers have often remarked that the flight model is too simple for their taste. By extension, we’ve encountered some of the same perceptions, so it’s been up to us to show players that Take On is a new experience.

Joris: It has been hard, and still is hard, to make people who know our games understand this is a new Intellectual Property, a new brand. We have both positive and negative traits associated with our past releases and even when we change in these areas, some people are blind to the changes.

Jay: However, some players and reviewers have really ‘got’ what it is that Take On is all about, putting their pitch-forks and burning torches aside for a moment, and have enjoyed the different challenges and experiences, and recognised the potential that this game tries to offer.

RipTen: You guys have proven to be capable of delivering highly moddable sandbox experiences, how strong are the tools players will have to create their own scenarios in TKOH? And just how complicated can people make them?

Joris: This is what we’re really excited about. The possibilities are endless. Think Arma 2 plus all the new technologies, script commands and features. Even just our team still has a never-ending stream of ideas of what to do with civilian helicopters. Add combat to that and you open yet more options. Use the engine’s capabilities of doing non-helicopter gameplay and pretty much anything becomes possible.

Jay: Documenting the new features is on-going, and finding ways of presenting and teaching them to new players is what we’ll be actively working on post-release. One way we’ll do that for sure is with the community wiki (http://j.mp/TakeOnBiki), another is with support on our official forums (http://j.mp/TakeOnEditing).

Joris: We’ve already seen some custom scenarios during the Community Preview and Pre-Order Beta and are really curious whether the first real add-on will be a helicopter, or something completely unrelated!

RipTen: What sized team do you have working on TKOH? Has it taken any resources away from delivering ArmA 3?

Joris: We are a different team than the one working on Arma 3 in Brno, so no, it’s not like everyone at Bohemia Interactive is just working on one active project anymore. Of course there is cross-over, when we share technology or a particular skill-set. We’ve had about 20 active developers on the team, but there’s a lot of support staff like marketing, distribution, legal, consultants, etc.

Jay: Since January, it’s been a pretty solid core of developers, with numerous other people contributing with their skills or expertise at various stages of the project.

Joris: Also, quite some of the new tech will be redeployed in A3, so in fact it’s been beneficial to that game.

RipTen: Is this a mere side project or an attempt at a lasting franchise?

Joris: We can’t predict the future, but as the name implies we see the potential for taking on other themes.

Jay: The new technology alone attests to our investment in the project, with the integration of completely new flight dynamics and new engine features, which, while deployable across our studios, have their heart in this game.

Todd Hollenshead Loves “Console Scum” and id’s Future as a Multiplat Dev

Dave Oshry — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 01:00:53 +0000

Once upon a time there was a little company called id Software. They made PC games, for PC gamers. They knew their fans, and their fans knew them.

However, times have changed.

With their newest IP, RAGE, id is opening themselves up to a very different ‘fanscape’ by releasing the game simultaneously on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

That being said, during the 20 Years of id panel at Quake Con last month, I stood up and jokingly asked various id ‘legends’ what they thought of the, “Console scum that are ruining hardcore gaming!”

The crowd (made up of roughly 99% PC gamers) cheered and laughed (as did the guys on stage) but all kidding aside, the guys on stage knew the pitfalls of abandoning your hardcore fanbase all too well – and a lengthy discussion followed.

id technical director and resident rocket scientist, John Carmack notably remarked:

You would not be able to have the games that are developed today without the broader reach of the console market.

So, the next day I caught up with one of the panelists, id’s CEO Todd Hollenshead, to ask what he really does think of the, “console scum” and what it’s like for id looking toward the future as a true multiplatform developer:

As you can tell, while Todd and the guys are looking toward their future as a multiplatform developer with promise, they clearly have not forgotten who their hardcore fans are. Sure, if RAGE was purely a PC game, they would have done some things differently, but rest assured, RAGE on PC is a vastly different experience. Hell, if the BYOC at Quake Con 2011 was any indication, id fans aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

The company wants to make sure they’re not just appealing to their hardcore PC audience, but their new console audience as well. As Todd says, if RAGE can satisfy the hardcore PC gamers, it’ll be an easy sell on the consoles too.

Is it daunting when you’re about to release your first new IP in over a decade to a completely new audience? Of course it is! But if anyone can do it, id can. Especially with the Bethesda marketing machine behind them 100%.

Stay tuned to RipTen for continued coverage of RAGE and all things id Software.

Dungeon Masters Rejoice! Roleplaying in Mass Effect 3 Is Deeper Than Ever

Dave Oshry — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 02:00:48 +0000

The Mass Effect series has seen a constant evolution in terms of story, graphics and gameplay. While many would agree that the gameplay in Mass Effect 2 was superior to it’s predecessor, many roleplayers like myself felt that the role playing elements from the original game had been stripped down.

Well, recently I got hands on with Mass Effect 3 and was pleasantly surprised to see things like increased weapon customization and deeper and more varied skill trees within the game. Better yet, I was able to grab series executive producer Casey Hudson to talk about it:

As Casey said, in Mass Effect 3 you literally lay your weapon out in front of you to customize it, often times in the heat of battle, and can do things like add scopes, mods, barrels, different ammo types and so on. The way in which it’s done is entirely new to the series and also entirely one of the cooler new parts of the game.

This Is How You Will See Your Weapon Laid Out In Mass Effect 3

As you also may have heard Casey say, the game’s economy has been expanded to facilitate this. More good news considering how us roleplayers love to run around to every shop in the galaxy buying and selling rifle parts.

Likewise, the skill trees are now deeper and more involved than ever before. Sure, you can still set Shepard and his crew to “auto-level” but why would you when you have all new levels of custmization that really allow you to get lost in the “choices” that make the Mass Effect series so much fun for fans of shooters and RPGs alike.

It's Deeper, Baby

Stay tuned to RipTen for continued coverage of Mass Effect 3 and all things BioWare

Oh, and don’t forget whose cosplay is Casey’s favorite ^__^

id Isn’t Telling Us a Damn Thing About DooM 4 Until RAGE Ships

Dave Oshry — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 22:30:10 +0000

Many of us trekked down to Dallas, Texas in the 110 degree heat this year in hopes that DooM 4 would be officially unveiled at Quake Con. Sadly, no such unveil took place… but for good reason.

It’s the year of id’s new IP, RAGE and the official announcement of DooM 4 would have clearly taken the wind out of RAGE’s sails. (and sales) From a marketing perspective, it just makes sense NOT to show us a damn thing until RAGE is out the door.

However, that wasn’t enough for me, I had to get the official word.

So, I asked id’s Creative Director Tim Willits who told me flat out:

“We’re not going to give you guys so much as a fucking screenshot until RAGE is out the door”

Fair enough… but I wasn’t convinced, so I asked id’s technical director John Carmack:

"I'm Not Telling You Shit Dave... Let Go Of My Hand"

He confirmed what Tim said stated that it obviously wouldn’t make any sense to show us anything until RAGE was done.

Yet, I still wasn’t convinced!! It had to be misdirection right?! They were gonna drop a bomb at the 20 years of id panel… I just knew it!!

So, I asked id CEO Todd Hollenshead…

“Dude” he said. “If that’s what Tim and John told you… what do you think I’m gonna say?!”

Sigh, so that’s the official word… but it doesn’t make the waiting any easier.

However, the gents did let me know that once RAGE has shipped, the entire RAGE team will merge with the DooM team and then it’s FULL DOOM AHEAD, baby!

Stay tuned to RipTen for continued coverage of DooM 4, RAGE and some real interviews with these gentlemen from Quake Con 2011.

Treyarch Explains How They Build and Balance Multiplayer Maps

Dave Oshry — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 22:00:01 +0000

Building and balancing multiplayer maps is hard. It’s even harder when you have to do it for the biggest video game franchise in the world and are expected to pump out high quality map packs after release.

So, just how does Treyarch manage to get it done with a game as big as Call of Duty: Black Ops?

We sat down with design director David “Von” Vonderhaar to find out:

So, there you have it. Start with an idea, build around that idea, balance around those ideas and then… pass the controller.

Von told me that it takes months to get maps from start to finish, and that tons of maps have been left on the cutting room floor.

It’s a never ending struggle to please every CoD gamer out there, but it’s a challenge that Von and his team are up to.

Rocksteady is “Amazed” by How Arkham City Looks On Current Gen Consoles

Dave Oshry — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 10:00:25 +0000

Batman: Arkham City is shaping up to be bigger and better than it’s predecessor in every way. That means story, gameplay, and of course… graphics.

This week I had the chance to sit down with Paul Crocker, the lead narrative designer for both Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. Low and behold, he had some great things to say about what he and the team at Rocksteady are working so hard on.

First off, when asked about Catwoman – Paul said that she was nearly first on their list of characters they wanted to have playable, it was just a matter of ‘if’ they could pull it off. They really wanted to push themselves to deliver a different experience from the first game, and having the two characters playable with an intertwining storyline really helped them to achieve that goal.

I pressed Paul for details about hopefully seeing Robin playable in more than just the challenge missions (since he’s so badass now) but alas, he replied that they have no plans to bring Robin into the game in a greater playable capacity at the moment.

However, when I asked if there would be any BIG surprises in store for players in the game, he replied, “Oh, yes”

He went on to say that since people know and love just about every character in the Batman universe, keeping things a secret and letting the player be surprised is that much more important to them. The team at Rocksteady knows it’s infuriating for players who want to know every detail of the game before it hits stores, but they believe that the payoff is worth the frustration:

“You have no idea how hard we worked to keep Scarecrow under wraps the first time… it was insane. Yet, I think everyone who got to experience the game, was thankful for that moment”

When I grilled him about how amazing Arkham City looks on PC thanks to their partnership with Nvidia, he said that it was obviously brilliant since they develop on PC, but that Rocksteady’s goal was to make the game look as good as possible on all platforms.

I then asked, “Why do you go that extra step, when so many other developers don’t?”

“What’s brilliant for us, and also terrible for us, is that we’ll make this thing look amazing on the PC, and then have to find a way to keep the quality of the visuals on consoles.”

A rough task indeed, given how capable PC’s are of pumping out next gen graphics and how far ahead of consoles they are at this point in this gaming generation. However, when I asked if he thought it was time for new consoles yet, he had this to say:

“I would buy a new console if it came out tomorrow, but I don’t know if it really is time. Arkham City looks great on the current gen, so I can hold onto that money for a bit longer.”

“Our goal is to make all versions of the game look as absolutely stunning as we can”

And indeed it does. Both Paul and myself admittedly have had to do double takes when checking out Arkham City. Only upon close inspection did we realize it wasn’t the PC version, but in fact the Xbox 360 version that was being shown. Paul went on to say:

“I’ve walked into rooms and gone, “Is that the PC version?” and been “Amazed” that it was the Xbox version”

So, by all accounts, it looks as if Rocksteady will prove once again that they are a developer who can go toe to toe with the best of them and deliver a gaming experience in the current generation that is second to none.

“Honestly, we just want to make the best Batman game we can”

Stay tuned to RipTen for continued coverage of Arkham City and all things Rocksteady.

Editor’s Note: I know you guys are used to me doing video interviews, and I do indeed have this entire conversation on video. However, it was far too noisy in the press room for me to publish it as such.

Deal with it ^__^

If Gears 3 Sells Well, Cliff Bleszinski Says Another Game is, “Business 101″

Dave Oshry — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 13:00:31 +0000

RipTen founder Chad Lakkis is a well known Gears of War fanatic. He famously drove over six hours to get himself the original Gears of War and his fandom has only grown since then. As an artist, he’s been responsible for things like the Gears of War movie poster and the Maple Leaf of War, but it’s always the games themselves that he’s looked forward to messing around with the most.

Recently, Microsoft gave Chad the chance to test out Gears of War 3 – what they didn’t tell him was that he’d be locked in a room with Epic Games design director, Cliff Bleszinski.

RipTen has spoken with Cliff on several occasions and we can usually be found bothering him on twitter, but this was the first time Chad had the chance to sit down and spend some quality time with the one and only Cliffy B.

After being so impressed with the game that we gave it two Best of E3 awards – Chad had a few questions that Cliff was happy to answer:

RipTen: I liked the variety in Gears 2 overall.

Cliff B: Yeah. Variety is key.

RipTen: How does the variety in Gears 3 stack up?

Cliff B: Basically it gets back to crunchy combat bowls. There was an image that went around on the internet a while back that showed a FPS map design from 1993 of DOOM E1M1. It showed this really cool kind of porous environment that you could kind of explore around a bit, and then it showed 2010 and it was like ‘line, cut scene, line cut scene, line, cutscene, line, cutscene.’ And I feel like, you know, not to slag our old work, because we’re still proud of it, but there were sections of Gears 2 were a little more of the latter image and less of the prior image.

This is The Picture He Mentioned - Sad But True

Cliff B: Gears works when it’s the fountain fight in Gears 1, or the East Baracade Academy first fight where you go in and ‘ok what’s my strategy? I’m gonna go to the right. I found a Long Shot. I’m going to try sniping. Okay, that didn’t work. I died. Respawn, go to the left. Oh, I found a Torque Bow in the closet and I’m going to use that… and then I killed the Boomer and I got his Boomshot for the next wave of enemies. It’s kind of a free-form crunchy combat bowl and we’re going to get back to that a lot.

So environmentally, I assure you that if you were to map out the color tone of the entire campaign across the board, you’re going to see quite a bit of variety in there, from the different types of villages you can go to. You saw in the War Pigs Trailer, there’s actually a level that’s under water as well. So there’s lots of really cool variety in there.

RipTen: Now, when you design the weapons for Gears – what’s the thought process that goes into your weapon design? You’ve always had unique weapons implementation.

Cliff B: Well, I think the pendulum goes back and forth between just regular ol’ guns and unique weapons. I mean, I’ve wanted to see a Digger type launcher weapon for a while right? We’re not the first company to do that also, but I think our implementation is great. The mentality for Gears 3 is to just add more regular guns, right? That’s where the Pendulum Lancer came from. I mean, you know – different recoil rate, a different clip size, different damage, different stopping power – these are things that gun nuts just cream over.

The Pendulum or "Retro" Lancer

So, sometimes it’s okay to just have more interesting rifles that are just guns, because we have plenty of unique kind of goofy things that go on, as far as the different weapons.

RipTen: You guys are talking about this being the end of a trilogy, the last of three parts. If the fan interest is still there, considering the impact of the characters you have developed and the following they have, are you open to continuing the brand in some way?

Cliff B: Well, there’s always the Peter Jackson route, right? Do The Hobbit or something like that. I mean, we’re business people. Gears 1 and 2 sold about 6 million copies, so if this game comes out and, God willing, sells 8 or 10 million it would be completely dumb to not do another one, right? It’s just business 101. So, I mean, the key is figuring out what’s appropriate. What makes sense for this connected world that we’re moving into? So, that remains to be seen. That’s the million dollar question…

Stay tuned to RipTen for more on Gears of War 3 and Cliffy B.

The Inspirations of Starhawk – An Interview With Dylan Jobe

Dave Oshry — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 16:00:47 +0000

You may be surprised by some of the titles of the games pictured above. Yet, as surprising as they may seem, it’s not surprising at all really. At it’s core, Starhawk is a tower defense game with more similarities to games like Plants vs. Zombies than you may think. But don’t take my word for it – I spoke with Lightbox Interactive CEO Dylan Jobe to get to low down on just what inspired their latest creation and how.

DJ: I remember the day I was flying back from LA and playing Plants vs. Zombies on my iPad. It was still pretty early yet on Starhawk. Well, early is a relative term because we really spent a loooong time in pre-production. We knew we needed to be different with Starhawk but it did take us quite awhile to find our sweet spot. We wish we could have done it faster but, ya know how it goes. Anyhow, yeah so playing PvZ I was really intrigued by a few very simple things they did like showing the player the zombie types that would be attacking with that initial camera pan. Or the simple joy and cadence of tapping the suns as they are plopped out on to the game board. I also really liked the fact that I had more plants than I could use in my “seed inventory” which helped to stimulate some really interesting player choices.

This Image Screams AAA PS3 Exclusive Build and Battle Third Person Action

DO: So how did that impact Starhawk?

DJ: Well, it was the simple yet fun esthetics of collecting and spending sun which got us thinking about our very simple economy — killing to build and building to kill. The idea that shooting buildings, enemies, and vehicles would yield the currency for our Build&Battle system and how it had to be gratifying to “get paid”. And really Dave, to an even larger degree, PixelJunk Monsters really inspired us for how way we handle our Build & Battle currency. In PJM, the player uses his towers to destroy enemies and then they poof into coins that the player then collects and uses to build more towers.

DO: Ok, now how does that sort of a system translate into a game like Starhawk?

DJ: Well, in Starhawk, there are more structures than the player can hold in his inventory at any one time. Now we don’t have a “pick your seeds” phase, but the way the player gains access to Build & Battle structures in the solo-campaign occurs by 2 methods. The first one, is the very straightforward way via Cutter, your gearman up in the dropship. He provides you with the critical path structures that you will need for a mission. However, that was not enough for us. We really liked the variability that we saw players get from PvZ but we chose not to do a “seed select” phase due to a variety of technical and design reasons. So what we ended up doing was pretty slick in the end, and that is to hide/place non-critical-path Build & Battle parts in each mission that players can “salvage”. The salvage pick-ups are the ones you may have seen in the videos or in our demo solo-mission — they’re the ones that have the glowing yellow boxes around them. And in the demo we didn’t really *hide* them so please don’t think that’s our best attempt at hidden pick-ups :-p

DJ: The cool thing about this system of salvage pick-ups is that it helps to seed interesting player choices in the gamed: does a player build up some defenses and then go out and explore a bit to see if he can find new parts? Does the player tweet his friends to see if they know the location of any hidden parts? Or, after completing the mission, does the player see that in the end-mission rewards screen, there was a +4000xp bonus award for using only Flak-Turrets to defeat the Hawks… thus informing him that, “Hey, there are Flak-Turrets hidden somewhere in the level!”. So, he may want to replay that mission with a different strat, look for the Flak-Turrets and then farm the mission for 4000K xp.

Wow, this is kind of a ramble. Sorry about that!!!

id Explains Why RAGE Looks So Damn Good On Consoles

Dave Oshry — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 19:00:11 +0000

In their latest developer diary, id Software said that RAGE was arguably the best looking game on consoles. As can be expected, gamer reactions were decidedly mixed about such a statement.

However, it just so happens that RipTen had a chance to speak with id’s creative director Tim Willits recently, and he answered our questions about how they got RAGE to look so damn good on consoles:

So, there you have it. The answer to every question about RAGE and id Software is… John Carmack.

Actually, the answer is the awesome technology behind the new id Tech 5 engine… but you probably already knew that.

Stay tuned to RipTen for continued coverage of RAGE and all things id.

Where Does Gearbox Get The Balls To Make a Full Blown Aliens Sequel?!

Dave Oshry — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 19:00:47 +0000

Gearbox Software has some balls. Balls of Steel in fact. Not only have they brought Duke Nukem Forever back from the grave, but apparently they think they can pull off creating a direct sequel within one of the most storied film franchises in science fiction history… in the form of a first person shooter.

Aliens: Colonial Marines is set to take place right after Alien 3, but do Gearbox and Sega really have what it takes to make this game an official part of the Alien franchise?

Well, I locked Gearbox CCO and co-founder Brian Martel in a small room and asked him, just where do they get the balls?!

As you undoubtedly gathered from the interview, it’s not so much balls as it is a mutal sense of trust between 20th Century Fox, Sega and Gearbox.

Apparently it was the combined Alien fandom of Brian and his partner in crime Randy Pitchford that was enough to sway the powers that be and let Gearbox have their way with Fox’s beloved franchise. God help them if they screw this up.

Luckily, after seeing Colonial Marines more up close and personal than an Alien facehugger, I can say that Gearbox and Sega are certainly taking things in the right direction… so far.

However, that still doesn’t make up for James Cameron’s racism toward black aliens…

Stay tuned to RipTen for continued coverage of Aliens: Colonial Marines

Heroes of Newerth Brought Down Repeatedly By Hackers – S2 Responds

Dave Oshry — Tue, 31 May 2011 01:15:25 +0000

Over the past week or so, Heroes of Newerth, its servers, and its forums have been brought down repeatedly by hackers. Being a HoN player myself, I was quite displeased with the situation. So, I reached out to S2 games to get the full story and find out just WTF is going on with HoN!!

Here’s the rundown:

Apparently, there’s a small group of players based out of England and Croatia who run a hacking / scamming ring that sells hacks mainly for FPS games. Unfortunately for S2 games, they are also HoN enthusiasts. These hackers soon figured out an exploit which they used to crash the HoN game servers. Yet, when S2 banned their accounts for it, they bought more accounts using stolen credit cards and scammed accounts… and continued to crash the game servers.

Said hackers are also the ones who put up these idiotic, racist and fake: “Indian cyber terrorist” videos:

The hackers also made a Twitter account (with 11 whole followers!)… lovely.

So, they were banned again, but once they started running out of accounts… they started DDoS’ing S2.

The S2 team managed to mitigate the DDoS attacks the first time around, just in time for HoN’s 1 year anniversary, but they soon hit back harder with much more sophisticated techniques.

According to S2, they’ve basically been targeting the master / login servers, making it next to impossible for players to log in. As of right now, S2 has seemed to have solved the bulk of the DDoS issues after working nonstop for the past week, so the hackers have shifted their attacks towards the forums instead, bringing them down repeatedly as well.

S2 has had to spend a significant amount of time and money fighting these attacks. This is quite unfortunate, especially given the fact that S2 is a relatively small and wholly independent developer.

As of today, Memorial Day, HoN and it’s servers appear to be functional (although there are intermittent login issues and stat tracking is still down). However, according to my contacts at S2, technicians were up until at least 4AM last night because the hackers were STILL trying to DDoS them… /sigh

S2 has been giving out incentives such as extra in-game currency for players who have braved this storm. However, they seem to have stopped most of the attacks… for now.

This statement was issued by S2 last night:

We understand that many of you are frustrated with this situation and want to point your anger at S2. It is most definitely our responsibility to create systems to prevent these kinds of attacks. However, the ferocity and length of these CRIMINAL activities is more than we have ever planned for. HoN ran smoothly and near flawlessly for a year of retail. We pride ourselves on our high standards of operation and this is very painful for us to endure. We will work to resolve this issue once and bring HoN back to its peak operating performance.

I will update this story as it continues to unfold, hopefully I won’t have to do much, if any updating at all.

Game on.

Marc Silvestri Plays The Darkness II, Calls It “Insane” and “Bad Ass”

Dave Oshry — Mon, 09 May 2011 23:23:41 +0000

I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Marc Silvestri is one bad motherfucker. In fact, standing damn near seven feet tall, he’s one BIG bad motherfucker. Back in 2007, RipTen first interviewed this renowned illustrator and creator of The Darkness prior to the release of the original game inspired by his work.

Now, four years later, we’ve had the pleasure of sitting down with the CEO of Top Cow Productions once again – this time right after he’d gotten his hands on The Darkness II for the very first time.

Better yet, we brought in 2K Games producer Seth Olshfski to talk with Marc as he gave us his impressions.

Seth’s reactions are priceless and you can tell that both he and Marc are extremely proud of what has been created with The Darkness II:

The Darkness II comes to life on October 4th. Can you handle the bad ass insanity?

S2 Games and Heroes of Newerth Are Not Worried About Valve and DotA 2

Dave Oshry — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 13:00:46 +0000

Once upon a time, there was a game called Defense of the Ancients (DotA) Well, actually it’s still around, but that’s besides the point. What started as a Warcraft III mod soon became it’s own genre, and once the allure of DotA began to fade, worthy successors (clones if you will) popped up in the forms of the hardcore (Heroes of Newerth) and the not-so-hardcore (League of Legends)

Both HoN by S2 Games and LoL by Riot Games are supported by rabid fans and have been quite successful. However, being an experienced (albeit mediocre) HoN player myself, I jumped at the chance to sit down with the guys at S2 games to talk to them about the elephant in their arena. What elephant, you ask? Valve’s DotA 2.

I wanted to know if S2 was worried about an industry giant such as Valve teaming up with the man who has carried DotA since 2005 (IceFrog) to create an actual sequel to the game that itself inspired HoN. Many people think DotA 2 will kill games like LoL and HoN, but S2 - they ain’t scared, not one bit.

So, I sat down with S2 Games Design Director James Fielding and Senior Designer Pu Liu to find out just why they aren’t afraid of the mighty Gaben:

I was surprised by S2′s confidence, even if I did think that deep down inside they were a bit nervous about what Valve’s game could do to their market share.

However, I got a real kick out of hearing James say things like “We’re interested to see how DotA 2 lives up to the bar we’ve set” and, “If I were in Valve’s shoes, I’d be a little afraid of having to follow up our act”

Yet, quite frankly, S2 has set the bar quite high.

HoN is an extremely well polished and well balanced game. It’s got everything a DotA fan could want and S2 supports the game feverishly. So, as Pu said, “The announcement of DotA 2 is only more motivation for us to set the bar even higher”

Should S2 be worried about Valve and DotA 2? Only time will tell.

RipTen and AskACapper Praise Brink For Console Button Remapping

Dave Oshry — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 13:00:23 +0000

For years now, Chuck Bittner, a quadriplegic gamer a.k.a AskACapper has had a petition to bring custom button remapping to console games. A feature which PC gamers have enjoyed for years and a feature that would make the lives of people like Chuck and other handicapped gamers the world over – much easier. His petition (which now has over 50,000 signatures) has gotten the attention of media outlets and game developers alike – yet still very few, if any, console games ship with the ability to remap your controls.

However, one game is about to change all that, and that game is Brink. Developed by Splash Damage and published by Bethesda Softworks, Brink will ship with the ability to remap all of your controls across all three platforms.

The last time I got hands on with Brink and found out that it had custom button remapping, I immediately thought of Chuck and made it the focal point of my first interview with Splash Damage CEO Paul Wedgwood.

When Chuck saw my interview, he was ecstatic. A true AAA console multiplayer FPS with custom button remapping!? It was about damn time.

Soon after, I learned that both Chuck and Splash Damage were going to be at PAX East 2011. I knew that I had to bring them together so that Chuck could have the opportunity to thank Splash Damage for their dedication to customizable gaming, and so Splash Damage could see first hand the difference they were making in Chuck’s life and the lives of handicapped gamers the world over.

You’ll have to listen carefully, it was rather loud at PAX that day:

As you saw in the interview, it never even occurred to Splash Damage not to have custom button remapping in a game like Brink. It’s something PC gamers like them have been able to do since “forever” and they don’t understand why you wouldn’t do it. Not only that, they soon realized that remapping is really important to a lot of people – even though it didn’t ever seem like a big deal to the team during development. To them, it came as second nature.

So, just as Chuck praised Paul, Ed and the rest of Splash Damage for putting custom button remapping in Brink, they in turn praised Chuck for bringing awareness to the gaming community.

“You have made the games industry better” Ed said to Chuck. I wish you could see the smile that brought to both his and my face.

If you take away anything from this interview, let is be this:

Games can make a difference in people’s lives and gamers can change the way that games are made in order to make their lives better.

To learn more about Chuck visit his website and follow him on Twitter @AskACapper

For more on Brink go to the official website

Also, be sure to sign the custom button remapping petition HERE

Pitchford Says That the Duke Nukem Forever Delay ‘Wasn’t a Trick’

Matthew Sims — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 04:29:53 +0000

In the aftermath of the latest Duke Nukem Forever delay, many within the gaming community have questioned whether this was a cheap attempt by Gearbox to hype up the Duke brand one last time before release. According to an interview Pitchford gave to Eurogamer, this wasn’t an ironic final push for some free publicity but that the Gearbox team needs time to really polish the title.

“No trick – we believed May when we announced it. There is always uncertainty and we use experience and trends to help us be predictive. We are not perfect when it comes to predicting uncertain outcomes, but we are perfect at being committed to our goals and working relentlessly towards them.

“I think we may have been able to force May, but we think that would’ve introduced risks that would not have served gamers who have waited as long as we have to finally play Duke Nukem Forever. We are driven by fans who are as anxious for the game to finally be released as we are. The continued support of our fans does miracles for our morale and that drives quality and performance. It’s for the fans that I am confident this slight schedule adjustment is the right thing to do.”

Well there you go, the Duke is expected to hit June 14th here in the States and June 10th everywhere else; at least for now.

The Darkness II: If You Can Think It, You Can Do It

Dave Oshry — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 13:31:12 +0000

It goes without saying, even though I’m about to say it, that The Darkness II was my favorite game at the GDC… and I didn’t even get to play it.

Why does that go without saying? Because I’ve been telling everybody. I cannot believe how mind blowingly viscerally awesome this game looks. As a huge fan of both The Darkness comics and the original game (and the band), I am proud to say that Jackie Estacado is back – and better than ever.

There was so much win involved in the demo I saw at the GDC. Such a great art style, such great carnage, such great dialogue, such great storytelling… and even some great tits. As I watched Jackie once again transform into a beast controlled by The Darkness and decimate dirtbags in amazing new ways (thanks to the new and improved quad-wielding combat system) I was in awe.

Everything I ever wanted to do in the first game, was being done on screen. Anything I thought Jackie might be able to do, he did! Picking up weapons from across a room with demon arms? Check. Using demon arms to pick up objects and hurl them at bad guys? Check. Ripping off a car door with your demon arm and using it as a shield? Well, I’d never even thought of that… but yeah, Check. Better yet, you can now start firing two separate weapons while simultaneously slashing and grabbing your foes with those nasty, gnarly demonic arms of yours. It was all there. It all looked so seamless and easy. If you felt like a bad ass in the first game, your’re gonna feel like a mother fuckin’ god damned one man army in this game… because you are.

After the demo I just had to sit down to talk with someone about all the awesome I had just witnessed.

Luckily, Darkness II project director Sheldon Carter (from Digital Extremes) was on hand for an interview:

So, The Darkness II looks as if it’s definitely shaping up to be one hell of a sequel. You can bet that with guys like Sheldon on board to make sure that players get an amazingly brutal, visceral, creative and bad ass experience, I have no doubt that this game will certainly not be the last we see of Jackie Estacado and The Darkness.