RipTen Videogame Blog » E-For-All

Interview: Alex Ortiz, Production Coordinator for Guitar Hero 3

Michael Geslani — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 04:14:30 +0000

Guitar Hero is finally facing some tough competition this year due to Rock Band, and the behind-the-scenes maneuvering between companies is probably pretty confusing to most music game fans.

The creators of Guitar Hero may have moved on to develop Rock Band, but the GH license is still going strong with big-name contributors and more addicting guitar gameplay. We talked with Activision’s Alex Ortiz, who is Guitar Hero 3′s production coordinator, about how the legal and licensing changes have affected this popular series.

Q: What was the transition like from Harmonix to Neversoft?
A: I joined the team later in development. As far as working with Neversoft on this title, it seems like Neversoft knew what exactly what they were getting in to. They’re a really great developer who pulled off a really good game in GH3. They pretty much proved they can take over Harmonix crown and still preserve what Guitar Hero is.

Q: Did you use the same engine and interface as the previous two Guitar Heroes?
A: They have their own engine. We couldn’t use what Harmonix developed, but overall users who are familiar with GH1 and 2 will pretty much feel right at home with GH3 and see that not much was changed. Obviously the menu and everything is completely different. It’s more of the Neversoft style of things, but it’s a really good change, to be honest.

Q: What were Red Octane and Activision’s response to EA buying out Harmonix?
A: It was one of those buyouts that takes everyone by surprise. It wasn’t really expected, but we weren’t really surprised that a great developer like Harmonix was eventually bought by another company.

Q: What sets Neversoft apart from Harmonix?
A: I think what really sets it apart is our own unique style. When you look at the two games, Rock Band and Guitar Hero, there’s not a whole lot you can do as far as changing up the prep board too much. They’re almost going to look the same, it’s just what each developer going to bring to the table art and style-wise that’s going to differentiate the two.

Q: What’s in store for online play?
A: Online play is available right out the gate on PS3, Xbox 360 and the Wii. PS2 does not have online.

Q: What can you do online?
A: Basically it’s what you can do offline. Co-op mode is available online and competitive online play is there. You can pretty much go head-to-head against anyone in the world and prove who the best GH player is.

Q: Rockband has MTV, what about GH?
A: GH has the fact that it’s a monster franchise and brand name that is so well known. Throngs of people know GH. People still don’t yet know that Rock Band name. It’s yet to prove itself to the wide consumer market. You know when most people hear GH they know what it is. Rock Band, they’re not sure what it is. Because GH is such monster of a franchise it’s actually easier now for us to get artists involved. Artists are more proactive about coming to us first and trying to get involved.

Sex Pistols came back and rerecorded “Anarchy in the U.K.” for us. That was a major, awesome accomplishment. We got the band Living Colour to also rerecord “Cult of Personality”, and they actually extended and added things to the solo in the song. It’s amazing.

We also have Slash and Tom Morello who came in and recorded new, exclusive music just for us.

Q: EA claims that their guitar and the GH guitar are interchangeable, are they?
A: That’s been the long-standing thing that Harmonix has said– that the Guitar Hero guitar will work with their game. I’m sure their controller will probably work with ours, but I’m pretty sure there’s going to be some compatibility issues. Each piece of hardware is different. How the pieces of software are going to react to a controller that wasn’t necessarily designed for it, that’s kind of up in the air.

E for All Wrap-Up: Konami’s Killer Handheld Games

Andrew Podolsky — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 05:12:35 +0000

One of the nicest surprises of last weekend’s E for All show was Konami’s booth, which was filled with promising games. Enough has been said about MGS4, but on the handheld front, Konami was making waves with original versions of four of their most popular franchises.

It seems like a perfect combination–Castlevania, Contra, Metal Gear Solid, and Silent Hill. All are established franchises, some even dating back to the days of the NES. But there’s nothing old about these remakes and original titles. In fact, this lineup represents one of the most refreshing collections of handheld nostalgia available this year.

With Silent Hill: Origins for the PSP, Konami has created an original backstory for the creepiest town ever to grace a videogame. We didn’t get to see too much plot, though, because the level we played was set in a dark, abandoned hospital, where Silent Hill’s trademark freaky nurses were trying their best to stab our trucker hero.

The locations, while familiar, did show of the game’s surprisingly good light and shadow effects, and a bit of hammer and scalpel combat made even the nurses a tough challenge. Origins also added a few new quick-time events, like tapping x repeatedly to avoid a nurse’s attack. The graphics are somewhere between PS1 and PS2, and hopefully the rest of the game looks and plays as well as this creepy hospital did.

Nearby on the PSP was Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Plus, an online-focused “special edition” of the last full-fledged portable MGS. Our hands-on time with this title was focused mainly on running around catwalks and hallways, targeting other players with Old Snake from MGS4 or Raiden from MGS2.

While Metal Gear isn’t best known for its fun multiplayer deathmatch, Ops Plus seems like good practice for when Metal Gear Online hits the PS3 next year. The graphics are surprisingly good for a PSP title, showing that Konami really knows its stuff when working with Sony hardware.

Rounding out the intellectual property bonanza on PSP was Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles. As a remake of a PC Engine game that was never released in the U.S., this collection of one remake and two unchanged titles (Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night) is one of the best Christmas gifts for Castlevania nuts that Konami could have made.

The remake of Rondo, which is the only game unlocked from the start, is a slick-looking 3d throwback with some interesting boss-intro cutscenes and classic 2d gameplay. Even though Richter Belmont moves a bit slowly, the smooth animation and candle-whipping mechanics are really enjoyable. If you have any love for Castlevania, this is a must-play.

And finally, the DS will become the home to yet another beloved franchise–Contra 4, a return to form for a series that has been sidetracked with boring action-movie macho for too long. The original Contra was about one thing only–avoiding little glowing dots while wasting every pixely bad guy in sight.

Utilizing both screens but no touch-control, Contra 4 is standard stuff for those who remember the NES original. Bonus unlockables like a “museum” of old Contra games (don’t get too excited, they’re just screenshots and brief descriptions) and a new grapple hook move round out this highly enjoyable throwback.

It’s looking like a great holiday for old-school gaming, and if you consider yourself a gaming enthusiast there’s got to be at least one game in this lineup that interests you. Or if you’re like most hardcore gamers, every one of these titles holds an undeniably compelling appeal. For taking gaming back to its roots, we salute Konami’s legendary handheld lineup for this winter.

E for All Preview: Civilization: Revolution

Andrew Podolsky — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:50:11 +0000

“Cleavage-Patra” – Scientists now know what the pyramids were modeled after…

Allow me to paint you a picture: First came the wheel, then the alphabet, followed soon after by television and the Internet. There were horses and camels and elephants, which were mostly used to raid barbarian villages and wage wars between nations. Precious gems were extracted, rice and wheat were traded, and Civilization was born.

Excuse me if I’m glossing over the details. Human history is a little too complicated to encapsulate in one limited experience, but the Civilization games have been doing just that since the series began in 1991. Formerly only found on PCs, Civilization begins anew on nearly all current consoles with Civilization: Revolution, featuring sixteen classical civilizations and a slew of gameplay changes.

If my rundown of human events over the last ten thousand years or so seemed overly simplified, you should probably expect that same level of reduction from the console version. To streamline the controls and gameplay, Civilization: Revolution will hasten the speed of mankind’s development to a furious pace. Blink, and you might just miss the Renaissance.

There are certain advantages to tinkering with Civilization’s grand scale, like enabling a three or four hour playthrough from chariot wheels to tank treads. Playing through human history on the couch could get tiring faster than playing from an office chair, so shorter games could be an advantage here.

Also, some of the more difficult to manage aspects of running a civilization, like corruption, pollution, and forced revolution have all been dropped. It’s funny that a game called Civilization: Revolution would drop the ability for your subjects to overthrow your imposed system of government, but apparently the scientists working at Take Two have discovered irony.

The cultural impact of your civilization has also been overhauled, as you can now gain a cultural victory by accumulating great people. When your high culture score causes an unhappy competing city to join your civilization, you’ll end up converting the unhappiest city regardless of their distance from your borders. These kinds of changes could disrupt the finely tuned balance of the series, but with Sid Meier on board as the lead designer, hopefully these changes won’t cause Civilization to crumble.

Civilization: Revolution looks like it holds a lot of promise for a streamlined console version, and the game should play the same across all systems regardless of graphical power or interface. Bonuses like a standardized Game of the Week for online competitions on the Xbox 360 and touch-screen control for the Nintendo DS seem like they might even make the game worth checking out on multiple platforms. We’ll have the complete story on this new era in gaming when Civilization: Revolution comes out next year.

Feel The Pain The Next Time You Game

Michael Geslani — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 04:18:31 +0000

More than a decade ago Nintendo introduced the N64, and with it came controllers equipped with a rumble feature, For the first time gamers were able to feel the impact of their games. That feature spread like wildfire and eventually made it’s way into the peripherals of other consoles and PC devices.

Gaming peripherals continued to evolve, and now a Washington based company by the name of TN Games has introduced a product called 3rd Space Vest. The product looks to take gamers well beyond the world of sight and sound, allowing them for the first time to feel the pressure of a bullet wound or the intense g-force associated with flying a fighter jet over enemy territory.

The vest is powered by an air compression system that fires pneumatic cells. There are eight contact points that delivers 10 pounds of force, each of which are arranged on the vest for first-person shooters, while a 10-cell version is specifically designed to deliver 360 degrees of pressure in racing games and flight simulators.

“It’s a perfect place to start because if you’re playing a shooter game there’s a lot of action that can be applied to the torso, and in terms of a driving game — that’s where all the action is,” said Mark Ombrellaro, Founder and President of TN Games.

The idea sounds great. Imagine playing Call of Duty on your PC, you sprint across the terrain only to be shot by a sniper, instantly feeling the pressure in your chest from the impact.

Ombrellaro’s stated that his goal is to raise the bar in terms of player game interaction, and apparently the vest is just the beginning, as he fully hopes to expand on the technology in the near future.

“What we’re going with is basically an entire suit,” Ombrellaro said. “Obviously, the vest is a start and then at CES we will be showing the arms, legs and the helmet that will go with it.”

So far, the list of supported PC games is at five, two will be playable instantly, while the other three will require a patch available via download at www.tngames.com for free. Incursion, a TN Games developed futuristic “kill the aliens” first-person shooter, as well as Activision’s extremely popular Call of Duty II game will both be supported out of the box and best of all, they will be included for free with the purchase of the vest itself. In addition, Quake 3 and 4, as well as Doom 3 (all purchased separately) will be supported with the update.

Look for TN games to aggressively seek out other titles both on and off the PC as Ombrellaro made it clear that he hopes to gain access to console games and other genres including MMORPG’s.

The vest is scheduled to be released on Nov. 21, and with a price tag of $189, the first blow you’ll feel, will be to your wallet.

E for All Interview: Chris Kohler, Wired Game|Life Blog

Andrew Podolsky — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 08:02:41 +0000

Chris Kohler runs the Wired Game|Life blog, which views the videogame industry from a technological and social point of view. Chris has been to dozens of these industry events, so we stopped him for a few questions about the experiment that was this year’s E for All.

Q: What do you think of E for All?
A: I feel like they had a lot of really big plans for this show. I think their reach exceeded their grasp in that they wanted to have it in the old E3 building, it looks very much as if you’re at an E3, they have all the things you’d have at an E3, but nobody’s actually signed on to show any games.

It’s kind of weird, because this year I feel there were so many videogame events, one after the other, that it hit a saturation point. And we get to E for All, and it’s October, and everybody’s kind of already shown their games, everyone’s gotten their marketing out of the way.

“… everybody’s kind of already shown their games, everyone’s gotten their marketing out of the way.”

And now it’s just a matter of releasing the stuff, so there’s not much besides Nintendo, who never shows anything until two seconds before it’s ready to go. But E for All is really lucky that Nintendo showed up and that Konami brought Metal Gear Solid, because otherwise it’s tough to find something to do here.

Q: Are Konami and Nintendo the big winners of the show?
A: Yeah, they came in first and second in a two person fight.

Q: So is there anyone else here besides Konami and Nintendo?
A: There are. I really want to get down to THQ’s booth to play the new Destroy All Humans game, which is for the Wii. Obviously there’s Rock Band, which they’ve done a really nice job with. They set up a whole trailer, and of course they’re videotaping people for MTV, so if your band is the best band in the world you’ll go to Total Request Live and see Carson Daly or whatever.

Obviously Rock Band is wonderful and it’s the perfect game for this kind of thing. But even then, there’s so few people here that to see these games like Rock Band. At Penny Arcade Expo the line for Rock Band was like 45 minutes. Here the line for Rock Band is however long it takes the people on stage to finish their song.

Q: Have you spent a lot of time in the Nintendo booth?
A: Well, Nintendo had a media summit last week, and so I’ve already played all those games. So I wanted to go down and play some more Smash Brothers, because you know everyone loves playing Smash Brothers. But I’ve already played the whole Mario Galaxy demo, and all that kind of stuff, so there’s no reason for me to go back there. And they said they were going to have Professor Layton in but they pulled it, so they don’t even have that down there.

But I mean obviously the Nintendo booth is the destination of the show for anyone who comes here, because that’s where Smash brothers and Mario Galaxy and Link’s Crossbow Training and Ghost Squad are. Ghost Squad is really good too, that was my surprise of the show.

Q: What did you think of Konami’s booth?
A: Konami’s booth is great. They’ve got a really nice lineup of stuff for this holiday, well, not Metal Gear Solid this holiday, but that’s just a great demo. And the fact that Contra 4 is really, really difficult, but it feels just like you’re playing the NES game.

Q: Did you notice the Bionic Commando grapple hook in Contra 4?
A: Yes. I don’t know if it really needed it, the grapple just seems like something they put in there to let you travel to the top screen. Otherwise they’d have to put in a whole bunch of platforms for you to jump too, and that’s a little silly. It doesn’t really come in to affect the gameplay. But they do make pretty good use of it in the first boss battle, which has a part in the top screen and a part in the bottom screen, so you’ve got to grapple up to a helicopter and drop down.

Q: Did you see anything non-gaming that was interesting?
A: Yeah, there’s a woman out in the lobby making this huge charcoal painting of a bunch of Greek gods, and one of them’s holding a Playstation controller. So that’s cool.

Obviously they are really trying hard to kind of make up for the fact that there are like two or three videogame companies here, and get as much interesting content as they possibly can in here. And I should probably really couch this by saying it’s only Friday 3pm, people have been working, Saturday might be huge with lines out the door.

“… a lot of people might want to come in but get turned away by the high price.”

And it’s very expensive, so we’ll see. We had somebody asking us yesterday, a guy came up to us on the street and asked if there was a cover charge to get into E for All. And after laughing a little bit at the word cover charge, we said, “Yes sir, it costs $75 if you want to go on Saturday”. So a lot of people might want to come in but get turned away by the high price.

Q: Do you think there will be an E for All next year?
A: Next year apparently they’ve booked the show for the same weekend as Penny Arcade Expo. So I have no idea how that’s going to work out. If they seriously are going to do that, do they think that Nintendo’s going to send two booths, one to PAX and one down here? I mean, are they going to split their resources up like that? That’s got to be really difficult.

When it was E3 and CES one year, in 1995, eventually everyone just went to one show. They followed the leader. Nintendo said, we’re going to E3, not CES, and like dominoes every company followed in their wake. So we could see a very similar situation with Penny Arcade and E for All next year. We’re wondering which side the dominoes are going to fall on.

Q: Which conferences that you’ve been to this year have been the most interesting?
A: I got horribly sick during GDC, but I think that would have been interesting, had I made it to more than a third of the show. GDC starting out was pretty amazing with Miyamoto keynoting, even though that whole stock trade thing was happening and he couldn’t really say anything, any forward looking statements. But Koji Kondo performing at Video Games Live, that was really cool for me, I got to go to the rehearsal and see that.

So yeah, other than the violent throwing up episode that kept me in my apartment for literally two thirds of GDC… I don’t want to mention the company, but there was a party we went to that was just wall-to-wall bodies, and I think a lot of stuff got transmitted there. It was pretty nasty.

E for All, All for Naught

Michael Geslani — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 08:21:19 +0000

For the last time, I’m not happy to be here, this smile is sewn on!

Two days is the amount of time we’ve spent here at E for All and frankly, that is more than enough time to view and play all the games at this expo. The Electronic Arts demo booth had plenty of playable video games, but when asked for some press material we were told, “ … we didn’t bring any because we thought the press wasn’t going to come here,” said an EA employee.

That was pretty harsh. The expo is for the consumers to play video games before they come out, but that just doesn’t seem like a valid enough excuse to NOT have any material ready for the media, and it wasn’t just EA that came unprepared, other companies also seemed to care less about the press in attendance.

This was a consumer expo, and memo went out months ago, however the only companies that seemed like they got it were Nintendo and Konami. Excluding those two, the layouts for booths were terrible and the representation was more or less non-existent.

The first thing I did when I arrived was interview the President & CEO of TN Games, Mark Ombrellaro. The company developed an innovative peripheral 3rd Space Vest, which allows the player of a 1st person shooter or racing game to feel impact throughout his or her upper torso.

Our group then had an informal sit down with Metal Gear Solid 4 Assistant Producer Ryan Payton. Konami’s MGS4 looks to be Playstation 3’s most anticipated game of 2008, and its expo presence reinforced that. Ryan was great, and Konami from an overall standpoint impressed us as well, as they showcased their products and made information about their company and games easily accessible to consumers as well as the media.

Next up we made our way to EA’s Rock Band stage where Anthony Niven, Andrew Podolsky, and I got to finally rock out to Jet’s “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” and Nirvana’s “In Bloom.” Great game, but it will undoubtedly be one of the most cumbersome setups in your living room’s history.

THQ and Namco represented, but didn’t pick up as much of the crowd as Nintendo or Konami. There were plenty of other exhibitors like Intel and HP showcasing the latest computer technology, but it wasn’t enough to convince me that it was time for a $5,000 upgrade.

Overall, the expo didn’t seem to make much of an impact on consumers, and was definitely not worth the price of a 4-day pass, as it took us less than two days to see everything the 1st time expo had to offer.

In closing, it was a great opportunity for the smaller companies and start-ups of the world to gain exposure (assuming they came prepared) but the big players, outside of those mentioned here, just didn’t seem to give a rat’s ass.

E for All Hands-On Preview: Super Mario Galaxy

Andrew Podolsky — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 10:25:58 +0000

From his first moments, he could jump. Later, with a Tanooki suit or a cape, he could fly. But now Mario has broken the bonds of gravity and gone where no plumber has gone before—the cold lonesome of deep space. What lies in the farthest reaches of the Mario Galaxy? How about pirate ships, surfboard stingrays, and kitschy 80′s throwbacks?

Super Mario Galaxy is a logical continuation of the series– possibly the next game will be called Super Mario Metaverse. Just as the controls of the Wii have been untethered from convention, so too has Mario’s bold new gameplay. Every minute in SMG it seems you are doing something different. Each little spheroid is so tenuously connected to other space debris that you’d think the little guy would just fall off and float into the void.

To travel between celestial objects, Mario has to locate certain stars that whoosh him from starpiece to starpiece. Most of these are hidden in plain sight—break a crate or hit a few switches, and the exit will appear. Some of these require slightly more thought, like guiding Bullet Bills through a cage. And a few missions will involve much trickier feats, like keeping a stingray centered on a twisting waterway that hangs in space.

The difficulty level in these first few demo areas was never particularly taxing. There were a few “Too bad!” deaths caused by falling into the black, pulsing void of a lava star or by sending the stingray off the edge of the waterway, but for the most part moving between missions is simple and effortless. It makes us wonder how much of a challenge the game will offer for experienced Mario players, but the 10-15 year old crowd will probably find it just right.

One impressive boss level seen in the demo was against Megaleg, a giant robot that is easily a hundred times bigger than Mario himself. Just like in Shadow of the Colossus, Mario has to run up the leg of Megaleg, navigate across some light rotating platforms (again, nothing too challenging), and then break open the star on top of Megaleg’s head using the redirected bullets trick.

Defeating Megaleg opened up a new area to explore, where the trick was to aim the Wii remote at stars so that Mario could swing from one section to the next. But since this was a short timed demo, we didn’t get to explore the cosmos too deeply on this particular playthrough.

When Super Mario Galaxy comes out next month, it will likely be one of the best uses of the Wii controls and hardware. Once again Nintendo’s first-party software saves the day for a console that has seen more than its fair share of lackluster titles. But even if Mario single-handedly holds up the Wii for hardcore gamers, younger players will want to gravitate towards this new adventure as well.

E for All Hands-On Preview: Rayman Raving Rabbids 2

Andrew Podolsky — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 09:53:26 +0000

Hosing down rabbits with carrot juice isn’t most people’s idea of a good time, but when Raving Rabbids hit the Wii as a launch title last year, a lot of folks changed their mind. All of a sudden it didn’t seem too weird to swing a cow or shoot plungers at UFOs, as long as you were using the Wii remote.

A year later, minigames have been done to death on the Wii, but the crazy rabbids still remain. With an additional year to refine and polish the formula from the first game, Rabbids 2 looks like it will be a lot more fun.

The dancing sequences, which weren’t the best part of the original, are back with a few adjustments. You’re still shaking the left or right controllers at the right time, but the camera edits and different backgrounds (one we saw was a 50′s diner) these scenes look a lot busier. Plus, there are times when you can shake both controllers to cause your Rabbids to wiggle and boogie, which is just that perfect balance of cute and weird.

More successful, however, are the new minigames. One of them, called Singing in the Rain, had a tuxedo-wearing bunny belting out tunes while swinging from a street lamp. To play, you had to repeat shakes of the controller in order, sort of like the electronic board game Simon. Again, nothing ground-breaking, but amusing for a few minutes at least.

The best of the minigames we played, however, was a quick action game called “Dial R for Rabbids” where you play as a bunny sitting in a movie theater. When the manager turns off the lights, you’re supposed to hold the phone upright to your ear while a garbled voice comes yammering out of the remote speaker. When the light comes on, you have to put down the phone and hit A repeatedly to send a text message to the other bunnies. The bunnies that are too slow get punished by having their phones ring just before stage light or giant bag of popcorn squishes them in their seats.

The first Rabbids game was simple fun and a good showcase for the Wii’s motion controls, but the sequel seems like it has more of the stuff that works while the rest has been changed for the better. With a lot of variety and a perfectly family-friendly attitude, this is one series worth going crazy over.

E for All Interview: Ryan Payton, Assistant Producer on MGS4

Andrew Podolsky — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 03:10:50 +0000

We sit down with Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots’ Assistant Producer, Ryan Payton and pick his brain about his contributions to the long standing series, accessibility to newcomers, enhancements in gameplay, competition, the movie, and more. Have at it after the jump.

Q: What has your involvement been with the Metal Gear series?
A: My involvement in the Metal Gear series started with Portable Ops on PSP, where I helped design part of that game and helped with the script. That was my first title where I was actually involved with the design process, from inception to the time when we hand-carried it to Sony in time for Christmas. So that was a very hectic year… what was that, last year? Hard to believe.

So that’s where I really cut my teeth on game design and integrated a lot of Western game design ideas into the titles. For example, giving people multiple paths to get to their objectives, being able to recruit comrades and equip them with the items you want, create your own unique units, basically giving people more freedom to play it.

So I’m bringing some of that to the MGS4 development, with Metal Gear Online in particular, where we now allow players to equip their own skills, so everyone has their own unique skill set, and you can level up your characters with experience, so that as you get better your character gets better too.

Q: How did Konami take to your ideas?
They’re pretty receptive. Mr. Kojima recognizes that until now they’ve always had a 100% Japanese team. So it’s inherent that their game’s going to be more appealing to the Japanese, or feel better in terms of control and game balance. So that’s one of the reasons he brought me on two and a half years ago, to give the studio and the team a different perspective.

“… Mr. Kojima is receptive to it, so I think I’m going to keep my job.”

I’m lucky that he’s given me so much power and leeway in terms of what I want to do. As far as the control scheme in MGS4, I’ve been telling people that there are no sacred cows. We’ve been reworking the control scheme since the inception of the game. So no more bird’s eye view, the gunplay finally feels good, it’s never felt good in an MGS game. So we’re incorporating a lot of game ideas and I’m really lucky that Mr. Kojima is receptive to it, so I think I’m going to keep my job.

Q: Have you had any involvement with the story?
A: Yeah, I’ve been working on the story since day one, and I’m also in charge of editing the script and also directing the voice overs. We did six months of voice over work in Hollywood. So I helped direct that along with Kris Zimmerman, she’s been there since the beginning, we always hire her to direct our VO work.

That was a huge project, making sure that not only does it sound good, but it reads good. It’s the first Metal Gear, I think, that doesn’t read and sound like an anime. And that’s a good thing in my opinion. So making sure the story makes sense, getting people up to date with the story, because we have literally twenty years of fiction we have to cover.

Q: How are you making MGS4 accessible to newcomers?
A: That’s a tough challenge, because hardcore gamers have these expectations that they want us to fulfill. I get emails every day asking, is there going to be a European Extreme mode, is there going to be this and that. We’re working pretty hard to keep the hardcore happy, we’re including these flashback scenes in the cutscenes.

We’re actually tying up every loose end in the story in MGS4, going back to Portable Ops, and Snake Eater, MGS1 and MGS2. Pretty much everything you’re wondering about and you might have complained before about Mr. Kojima’s script, that this doesn’t make sense. Why doesn’t Vamp die, or why is Raiden like this, or who is Naomi, really, why is she double crossing and triple crossing people. All of that stuff is answered in MGS4.

In that sense it’s going to keep the hardcore happy, but on the other hand I realize that this is a mainstream title, and I’m not interested in just selling 800,000 units to the hardcore, I want this to sell 3-4 million copies worldwide. Which is why we’re giving players the option to explore the backstory, you know we have these flashback scenes, if you want to watch them it’s your choice.

We also have an encyclopedia in the game, if you want you can bring it up and go into the history, if you want to, but it’s not required. You can just watch the story from start to finish. There’s a clear villain-it’s Liquid Ocelot, there’s a clear objective. So even for people who haven’t played any Metal Gears up to this point, I think they’ll get a lot out of it.

Q: Do you think the gameplay is moving more towards Ghost Recon or Rainbow Six gameplay style, or is it still Metal Gear?
A: Not really. We call it “Tactical Espionage Action”, but I don’t think it’s that tactical still. Ghost Recon, they do a great job in that genre, and we’re not looking to intrude on them at all, because they do great at what they do. Our gameplay is not so much that strategic element of moving around your unit. Snake’s solo, he’s on a solo sneaking mission, you don’t have to worry about giving other people commands.

“…with this demo … gameplay feels so good and the aiming feels so fun, that people just kill everything in sight.”

And that’s one thing we’ve run into with this demo, and the demo at TGS, is that the gun gameplay feels so good and the aiming feels so fun, that people just kill everything in sight. And that’s not really a Metal Gear Solid game, because if they keep killing people, obviously we’re going to keep throwing enemies at them until Snake’s dead, or Snake hides, and then it goes back to normal mode.

With that said, we’re also opening up the gameplay to these warzones, these battlefield areas. So how I like to describe it is a waveform gameplay. The beginning is a sneaking section, and obviously you have to get to your point, like rendezvous with Otacon for example, that’s a sneaking part. But then we lead you onto the battlefield, where you can use these cool weapons without worry about being found. So you can unload on the PMCs, you can join with the militia men, you can kind of change the tide of war to how you see fit.

So that’s a cool way of releasing all that tension that you built up during all the sneaking parts. Then we take you back to a sneaking part, then back to a battlefield. It’s a way of keeping the player’s attention. So obviously that’s different from what Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon does.

Q: This is a very cinematic game. How much of the time is spent watching cutscenes?
A: At first, Hideo and I were talking about keeping the cinematics pretty short for MGS4. Because we felt pressure, complaints that the cinematics were too long. But I think that’s only a very vocal minority. I think people actually enjoy the cutscenes, just based on how popular the trailers are. And so what ended up happening was, we kept adding more and more cool scenes til we got to the point where I know we’re going longer than Snake Eater in terms of cinematics, and that game had four hours of cinematics.

I won’t say how many hours of cinematics we have in MGS4, but I will say it’s impressive. If people don’t want to watch they can skip it, so we’re giving people that option. Using our next-gen graphics engine, really incredible sound… I hate to sound cocky, but I think we’re going to win awards for our sound design this time. It’s really incredible. And people are going to be missing out if they skip those cutscenes.

Like I said, the script actually sounds cool. Maybe that was a problem before, is that the story was so convoluted and it sounded like it was coming from Japan, literally translated into English, and this time it feels like a Hollywood movie. It’s entertaining, the dialogue is witty. So yeah, you might be putting down your controller and watching some cinematics, but it’s going to be entertaining, I guarantee it.

Q: You guys have one of the biggest games at E for All. When did you make the decision to attend, and has it paid off in terms of fan reaction?
A: We made this decision without really knowing how many other vendors were going to be here. We like the idea of having a consumer-only event. We always support big shows like this, we’ve visited Leipzig and GDC, TGS, E3, even GO3 in Australia. So we’re very supportive of these consumer and press shows.

But with that said, are we happy we showed up? Of course. We’ve filled every seat we’ve had since we opened the doors on Thursday. We have literally hundreds of people playing the game every day. Some people are giving this show a Doomsday prophecy, like it’s not going to be around next year, that this is the first and last E for All. But I beg to differ, and I’m not just saying this because I’m here at the show and I want people to come.

I would be curious to see a ratio of attendees per booth compared to E3, compared to E for All, because we have people lined up around the booth to play MGS4. Smash Brothers has a huge line, and so does Galaxy. I’m wondering if publishers are regretting the fact that they didn’t show up, like Capcom, Sony, and Microsoft. I wouldn’t be surprised if the ratio of attendees is higher than it was at E3. So I’m hoping this is just the beginning of something really cool.

Q: How do you think you can sell millions of copies of MGS4 with all the competition?
A: I’m not worried about the competition, really. I think we’re the leading title coming out on PS3 next year. We’re not looking for a big bang, to sell a couple million copies in two weeks and then just trickle out throughout the year. I think we’re going to sell consistently, we’re going to own the majority of 2008 I think.

“I’m not worried about the competition … we’re going to own the majority of 2008…”

Especially with the online mode we’re including is going to keep people coming back. And we’re just going to keep updating Metal Gear Online. So I’m thinking we’re going to have steady sales all the way through to Christmas 2008. And maybe you think I’m being too bullish, or too cocky, but I have a lot of confidence that this game is going to be the system seller, that people have been looking forward to for the last year and a half.

Q: One last question, how about the Metal Gear movie?
A: The movie is still in pre-production. We’re having meetings next week. It’s still really early. I’m not as interested in the movie, I’m more interested in making games. I didn’t join this industry to make a Metal Gear movie, even though I know a lot of people are excited about it.

***

Check out our hands-on preview of the game here.

Nintendo Leads the Pack at E for All Expo

Michael Geslani — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 12:08:03 +0000

“I wonder how much I could get for all of these on Ebay?”

Walking along side the Nintendo fanboys at the first Entertainment for All Expo in the Los Angeles Convention Center was definitely a day to remember. Sony failed to show and Microsoft is apparently still hung over from their Halo 3 release, but Nintendo represented in full-force.

Upon entering the expo, there is a huge Nintendo area showcasing games such as Mario Galaxy, Links Crossbow and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Long lines lingered for each game, but fans were still eager to wait, watch, and finally play what are easily the most sought out games for the Nintendo Wii.

Other publishers that dared show their face were Konami, which had a playable demo of Metal Gear Solid 4, complete with a line that coiled around their booth, Electronic Arts who showcased their upcoming title Rock Band, and Activision who did the same with Guitar Hero 3, as the two went head-to-head with setups not too far from each other.

EA’s presence consisted of a rock like stage, decked out with all the instruments needed to rock out in front of those who gathered to check out the game. GH3 on the other hand, had a similar setup, with just one guitar, and an audience made up of empty bleacher seats.

All in all, there were a lot of games to be played, and pretty women to be gawked at everywhere you looked. That alone made the first hour fun, but after 8 hours it becomes very hard to overlook the gaping holes.

Those are just some of the sights so far. Tomorrow is a new day, one that will most likely be comprised of short skirted women once again trying to get me to play video games — I guess I can put up with it for one more day.

E for All Hands-On Preview: Epic Games’ Unreal Tournament 3 (PC)

Andrew Podolsky — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 04:52:08 +0000

You look like Cole Train. Maybe, but at least my mama ain’t a locust.

Epic is clearly interested in making games about burly space marines and their bad-ass weapons, and Unreal Tournament 3 is about as close to this vision as you can imagine. But if Gears of War was a relatively slow-paced, more thoughtful approach to shooters, Unreal Tournament is its jacked-up, circle-strafing, hyperactive twin.

During a 5 on 5 match of capture the flag, our two teams (Red and Blue… so classic) had a garage full of tanks and flyers that faced off down a long bridge. Falling into the water meant you could snag a shock core rifle, but it was slow going to get back to the top. Meanwhile, the flags were hidden in a secured bunker on the starting level, with access on the sides and an escape route through a jump pad in the back.

Getting to the flag was not easy, because all the action was funneled straight down the bridge and into the waiting team. Long distance weapons were hard to come by on this map, but there were plenty of short-term weapons like the shotgun-like flak cannon available.

First the torque bow and now the bio rifle. Epic has innovative weapons down.

For a speed boost, you could hit Q at any time to call up the hoverboard, but getting hit on it meant a few crucial seconds on the ground when you were vulnerable. Also, you couldn’t shoot on the hoverboard, but you could carry the flag. Another neat trick was to feign death with the F button, undergoing an elaborate death animation. The main drawback, however, is that it took a few seconds to get back to your feet.

The vehicles and environments were totally astounding on the high-powered systems we used. The Intel booth at E for All was just filled with great PC games, but Unreal Tournament 3 was noticeably prettier than any game on display (except, perhaps, Gears of War). It’s the same familiar style as Gears, but there hasn’t been a straightforward shooter with this much polish seen so far this year. Of course, when you’re playing a competitive twitch game like Unreal Tournament, you may need to sacrifice graphics for speed, so not all players will have this gorgeous PC experience.

The lighting and attention to detail are right up there with Gears.

Plasma flying and turrets humming, I was still able to make it across the map to deliver the final flag capture. It was pretty thrilling, but after years of capture the flag, maybe action gamers are ready to move on to something new. For what it is, Unreal Tournament 3 looks great and plays very well. Like a big-budget action movie, it’s exciting and pretty, without too much thinking to get in the way.

E for All Hands-On Preview: Super Smash Brothers Brawl

Andrew Podolsky — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 03:22:22 +0000

If you don’t have fun playing this game, check for a pulse…

Easily the most highly anticipated Nintendo Wii game of E for All, even more popular than Super Mario Galaxy, was Super Smash Brothers Brawl. As an ode to Nintendo fans of the last two decades, Smash Brothers Brawl packed in even more obscure references along with the familiar characters and locations.

We had a chance to play a couple of quick rounds (made even quicker by my inability to stay on the platform), first as Samus from the Metroid series fighting Diddy Kong, and then later as Yoshi fighting against Ike from Fire Emblem. Our first encounter was on the bridge from Zelda: Twilight Princess, which was a little more stable to do battle on. There were no extra platforms to distract from the pure combat, which is just as simple as it’s always been for this series.

There is one attack button, one special button, and then a couple different jump and block buttons. You can modify your attacks by pressing in a direction, and using the Classic Controller made moving around in any direction much easier due to the analog stick.

Andrew remains focused while getting his smash on

Samus had a few slow-moving missiles, and Yoshi’s ability was to turn into an egg (he is a biological anomaly, after all). But the experienced Nintendo rep I played against wasn’t having any of this. With a few deft moves he knocked me out, to the excitement of the people waiting behind me in line.

Another round was played against a Yoshi’s Island backdrop, with colorful balloons and shyguys in the scene. The platform was much smaller than Zelda’s level, so without much experience I ended up rolling right off the ledge.

There were the usual impressive powerups—Pokeballs, Star Fox bosses, and a Samurai from the F-Zero series all showed up to influence the fight. Mushrooms and crates, typical Nintendo props, were also scattered around the fight. Sonic the Hedgehog and Dark Link are among the highly anticipated additions to the roster, which has yet to be fully announced.

Bowser smash!!!

The key thing about Smash Brothers is that it inspires lifelong loyalty by being extremely simple to pick up and play, while containing a surprisingly deep combat system. The Nintendo hardcore will definitely make Smash Brothers Brawl one of the system’s top sellers, and even if there’s no room for motion control at all, there’s still the incredible prospect of online Brawl. We may have to wait until next year, but based on our hands-on and the mood of the crowd, Brawl can’t come out soon enough.

On Screen Video: The clip below is about 30 seconds of on screen E for All gameplay footage courtesy of Joe Haygood over at Aeropause.com.

[flv width="440" height="294"]http://www.ripten.com/e4a_smashbros.flv[/flv]

E for All Interview: Dan Connors, CEO Telltale Games, Talks Sam & Max

Andrew Podolsky — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 01:57:26 +0000

Dan Connors is the CEO of Telltale Games, makers of the Sam & Max episodes

The Sam and Max episodes have proven that regular episodic gaming can work, and that there’s still room for comedic adventure games in the market. Telltale Games sells their episodic games through their website, and their games are also available on Gametap. We spoke to Telltale’s CEO Dan Connors about the Sam and Max community and what makes Sam and Max work as episodic comedy.

Q: Episode One of Sam and Max Season Two comes out in November. How far along is the rest of the series?
A: Episode Two is very close,Three we’re about to drop voice in, and Four the design is done. Five we’re about halfway through the design.

Q: Are you involved in the fan community, the people who are anticipating the next season?
A: Yeah!

Q: What are their impressions of Ice Station Santa based on what’s been released?
A: People seem to be really excited about it. We’ve definitely got people living at our site now who are anticipating the next release, which was always a big goal for us. Last season was all about “how do you release a bunch of episodes, how does one episode link to another,” now we’re in this “how do seasons relate to each other?”

What we’ve always set out to do is create an experience where there’s a Sam and Max world online that you can come back to and be part of every month. Our dream is that that continues to blur between game releases and other Sam and Max web experiences and Telltale web experiences.

Q: When you say other Sam and Max experiences, do you mean the online community?
A: Yeah, like community, and ways to connect the community to the game, and take advantage of the fact that it is an online product. There’s no limits to what you can do. Well, obviously there’s limits, but there’s so many things to try. And it’s not like right now we’re under somebody’s thumb, kind of telling us what we can and can’t do.

We’re really interested in seeing what people are interested in, and what they’re responding to, what they’re really liking about it and what they don’t, so the community shows you that kind of stuff. Which is cool, when you have a community they tell you what they like. It seems like they’re liking what they see, because really it’s just going to be more Sam and Max and even crazier, wilder situations.

Andrew explains to Dan that yellow paper is easier on the eyes

Q: How have people responded to the adventure game aspect? Have you ever thought of taking those characters and putting them in a different type of game?
A: Well, we want to evolve adventure games to something that is much easier to use for everybody. Sam and Max is a little bit of a double edged sword. It was an adventure game, there are a lot of people who want it to stay an adventure game. And those people are the ones we can count on no matter what to come back and enjoy the experience. So if you think about who the consumer for Sam and Max is going to be, the adventure game makes a lot of sense.

Now using that mechanic and taking the best things about Sam and Max– the fact that they’re outrageously funny, the characters are a riot, the situations are a riot, so running around with a gun shooting at all of them wouldn’t necessarily deliver that. But the adventure game mechanics can be evolved in a way that the world is more alive and more active.

What we’re really thinking of now is the passive nature of an adventure game. You walk into a space, and you have to make something happen. You have to click on something to happen. What we want is the world to be more proactive towards you and come at you. If you walk into a room in a first person shooter, people don’t stand around waiting for you to do something. You’d get your ass blown off, and you move.

So that’s a driven experience, and that’s really how we want to evolve Telltale Games in general. Now, dramatically doing that to the Sam and Max audience that we have, love, and allow us to be funny and creative and come up with great characters, it’s a very sensitive thing. It’s not something we’re going to just drop on them.

Q: So would you be open to a spin-off series that is more action-oriented, or in a different genre?
A: No matter what genre we do, it’s still going to be about the characters and the story. If we do something like The Flint Paper Capers, I see it being closer to a CSI type of experience than a Max Payne type experience.

One of our mottos early was, in a Telltale game, if you’re going to shoot someone, you’re going to have a good reason. So vision-wise, the company’s vision is still to get to that point where there’s real connection between the player and the AI characters in the world. The Sims and Railroad Tycoon are both types of games we look at for inspiration. Even Façade and the more experimental stuff.

Q: Why did you choose to put Episode 4 for free on Gametap?
A: Because we think it’s a great episode. It’s topical. It’s going to be on our site in a couple of weeks too, as kind of a hey, here comes the new season, check out the best of last season. So we’re going to make it available to as many people as possible, and we know free is a great enticer. Right now, from a market standpoint, the first episode sells the most by far. People come in and they start on the first episode. Shouldn’t shock us or anything.

Q: But you don’t consider that to be the very best?
A: I don’t think anybody in the studio considers that to be the very best. It’s funny because it’s the best reviewed, and it won adventure game of the year, but that was just because it didn’t suck. I think more people can relate to [episode 4], swing on by and check it out, get introduced to Telltale Games, and say hey, this is pretty cool.

Q: Will making episode 4 available encourage people to review the rest of the series, or do you want to push them forward into season 2?
A: Our hope is it’s going to be something that gets people interested to go buy season 2. By four we hit our stride, and we weren’t stressed out about finishing it and wrapping it up. It was just sort of the perfect set of circumstances.

Q: Any plans to go back and refine the first season?
A: I think the first season is going to stay as it is, and if people want to start from the beginning, that’s great. We’re still incredibly proud of it. And it’s going to be part of the evolution of the series no matter what. Like you watch the first season of the Sopranos, and they weren’t exactly in their stride, but you look back at it later.

Dan is proud of the first season and its part in the evolution of the series

We took everything we learned from the first one and put it in from the ground up into Season 2. From the arc of the story, as far as type of puzzles people liked and didn’t like, as far as what the frustrations were for people. Everything we learned in Season one, we’re starting Season two with.

And then it was funny watching the production team kind of get their groove again, in the design and everything else, and watch the story flesh out. I think by three or four again this season it’s going to be kind of the best stuff. One is also outrageouslly funny, especially since it’s a Christmas spec ial. Having the ability to do that is something we’ve always wanted to do with episodic games.

Q: Where would you like to see the characters end up eventually? Are Sybil Pandemik and Abe Lincoln’s Giant Stone Head going to have little half giant headed babies?
A: You know, the sky’s the limit. You can see what the beauty of Sam and Max is. It’s like, you set up some ridiculous situation and ridiculous ideas come out of it. If there were six little Lincoln baby heads and they had a biting problem, and they were biting Max in the ankles, whatever… anything can happen. And that’s the beauty.

Q: What can you tell us about the new character, the waitress at Stinky’s diner?
A: Her grandfather originally owned it… and there’s definitely something fishy going on there. You still have a lot to find out about it, because the designers always kill me for giving away their secrets.

The waitress at Stinky’s is the granddaughter of the original owner,
and her story will be explained in Season Two.

Q: What are you doing to evolve the technology of the adventure game?
A: We’re doing a lot. We’re really focusing on understanding where the player is in the world. The engine is checking in with the player, saying have you done this before, how many times have you clicked on this. With that feedback, we then can tell the characters how to respond to that player. So it comes back to that bringing the player back to the world alive.

If I’m standing in the store not looking at anything, Bosco will say “What’s wrong with you?” and he should really recognize it. Understanding the player’s intent can be tricky because you never know when they’re going to go out back and have a smoke or whatever, but there are certainly things you can pull from it. Help direct the player, but don’t direct them when they don’t want to be directed.

If someone just wants to play a game that’s not just running around shooting, they want to get introduced to Sam and Max, they want to laugh their ass off, they don’t want to get frustrated. So we need to give them a directed experience. Immediately their first instinct is to not want to solve a problem. So we’ve got to recognize that and immediately make them feel like they are solving problems but they’re being helped enough. All those nuances.

So you’ve got the game telling you you’ve done this, that, and the other thing. We’re incubating that right now. And a lot of the other stuff is about the production proccess. Five episodes in six months is not easy. And we got better at doing it in the last one. By the end we were good at doing it and of course the designers made things three times more complicated. So it still took just as long. So they pushed, we optimized, they push, we optimized.

You’ll see our characters will be acting better this year, added animations, better use of animations. Just everyone has more animations to choose from and we’re selecting them better, and there’s better blending between them. Holistically, everything’s less rough. It’s going to be a good season.

E For All: Metal Gear Solid 4 Hands-On

Andrew Podolsky — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:51:55 +0000

Snake, the “Middle East?” Can’t you be more specific about your location?

A long line of gamers eagerly waiting to play Metal Gear Solid 4, perhaps their only chance before the game comes out early next year, snaked around an elaborate barbed-wire bunker booth at E for All.

Once inside, seated on sandbags, these demo testers got a quick walkthrough on the slightly different control scheme. Besides the controls, which emphasized one button aiming (L1) and one button firing (R1), the other major change from Tokyo Game Show is that this game was in English, with Snake once again voiced by David Hayter.

The demo started about 5-10 minutes into the final retail version of the game, with Snake in a “Middle East” location (sorry, it doesn’t get more specific than that). Revolver Ocelot is in the area, and Snake contacts Otacon on the Codec to determine where to rendezvous. There’s some interesting talk about Lizards and Gekkos as well—are these a new type of super-soldier to rival the legendary Snake?

Snake begins sneaking around outside a deserted street—deserted, except for a unit of private military contractors rolling along in a tank-like vehicle called a “Striker”. The Striker not only has a mounted machine gun, but also a roaming camera which can spot Snake and call in reinforcements. It’s the same camera evasion from previous MGS games, but this time it’s on wheels.

Konami’s MGS4 Booth at E For All

Yet another shot of Konami’s barbed-wire booth

Snake’s “threat ring” helps him identify the general location of such adversaries, but it’s a replacement for the radar that used to indicate that direction enemies were generally moving. Reading it feels like identifying seismic activity—a bump in one direction means you need to take cover, activate camouflage, or just run for your life.

The enemies, once they spot you, will follow you relentlessly. Peering into dark corners or following you through a series of rooms, the enemy AI is meticulous about tracking you down. Stealth is obviously the best way to move through the game, because even though your throat-slashing technique has improved, you are still too outnumbered and outgunned to take the balls-out action approach.

Those lucky gamers who had 15 minutes to play through this early level were also asked for their feedback on the game, and we’d estimate that most people were so happy to get an early look that they’d have hardly any criticisms. But if we had to point out a few problems, the camera work was a little confusing at times, being very sensitive and not framing the action very well. Also, the enemy animations took some time to recognize that, say, their buddy was just opened up by an aging superspy with a gray mullet. The reaction times could be a bit quicker to give this game a livelier feel.

There are still a few elements we haven’t understood yet—like why do you need to know the temperature, humidity, and wind speed of your environment? It’s not like Snake’s trying to drive a golfball through town. Also, the camo indicator in the corner tells Snake how well he’s disguised with the Octo-Camo, but we’d end up using that more than a visual confirmation, just to make sure that we really are hidden in plain sight.

Overall we can’t wait to see more of MGS4, though, so this hands on was a great (but brief) chance to check out the way the game plays. But besides the unique Kojima vibe, Snake is looking more and more like his Tom Clancy companions and less like his old self. Whether this is going to sit well with long time fans of the series is the biggest question we have about Metal Gear Solid 4 at this point.

Review: Spider-Man: Friend or Foe (Xbox 360/Wii/PS2)

Michael Bencic — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 05:41:10 +0000

“Try my blue bubble launching side kick on for size!”

There’s no joy on Earth like having a child. I realize I probably talk about my son and niece a whole bunch when I write, but that’s because it’s a joy being a dad and an uncle. As a gamer though, it’s tough when your three year old wants to play and there’s nothing he can actually participate in.

Even Lego Star Wars can be tough for a not so nimble-thumbed three year old. Sure, he likes to make the cow jump in WiiPlay, but that’s where his skills end. With Activision’s latest Spidey release of Friend or Foe, however, we have a game that players of any skill level can enjoy. Moms, dads, and kids, all saving mankind together. Think of it as Marvel Ultimate Alliance for ankle biters.

Know from the start that this is not an open world Spidey game like the last 19 released. These graphics will not redefine what the 360 is capable of. It is simple in its controls, design, and look, and I couldn’t be happier! Call me old school, but I loved side-scrolling beat ‘em ups. Spidey had a ton of them back in the day (Sega’s Arcade classic, Total Carnage, etc.) and this is a direct throwback to the SNES heyday.

I like variety, and the fact that Activision and Marvel want to use Spider-Man and his Rogues gallery in a new and interesting way is a step in the right direction. After all, Spidey is a hero everyone should enjoy. Friend or Foe also strikes me as Activision’s attempt to build a Lego Spider-Man type of experience. Maybe they should have licensed Duplo?

In the Friend or Foe story, each major Marvel villain within the game begins as a mind-controlled boss. Who’s controlling their minds? Everyone form Doc Ock to the Scorpion is dying to know, and willing to team up with Spider-Man (and Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D.) to find out who this mastermind is. Once you defeat them, they become an addition to the S.H.I.E.L.D. roster.

The opening cinematic brings together all the heroes and villains of the movie trilogy. Miraculously, not one Spider-man villain in the game has remained dead for long. Even Anthony (my son) was aware that the Green Goblin is deader than disco, and kept pointing it out. It’s hard enough explaining death to a kid, never mind the resurrection of comic book villains.

The first noticeable change when you start to play Friend or Foe is in the art style. While Ultimate Spider-Man directly used comic book assets, and Spider-Man 3 was a spin-off of the movie, Friend or Foe mixes the two with brand new designs that are modern, stylish, and attractive. It’s a bit odd that they’ve gone this route as opposed to directly using the comic book, or even the upcoming animated series, as a basis.

I really enjoyed how the artists redesigned all the players, especially Venom (but I am a Venom fanatic). But the art doesn’t end there, as all the Phantoms (robots you beat the tar out of), returning comic book baddies (The Lizard, Rhino), and levels themselves are bright, colorful, and fun. From Tokyo to Egypt, each area is set up so that you can run from room to room, beat up Phantoms, and jump into the next room.

While the gameplay is slightly repetitive, the children in your house won’t care. That’s probably what keeps the game on track with its target audience. Kids can pick it up, play, finish a level, and leave to enjoy it another day. Sometimes boss fights can become more difficult than the rest of the game, but that’s when two player drop in is perfect.

When Anthony didn’t know how to stop the Scorpion, Daddy gave a helping hand. With the basic control system (punch, jump, and grab) Anthony had no problem understanding what to do and where to go. It brought a huge smile to my face when he turned around and said “No Daddy, I can do it!”

Despite that I enjoyed the game, there’s a lot of belief-suspension involved with the plot. Not only are Green Goblin and Octavius’ zombies roving around, but apparently they won’t take the opportunity to kick Spidey’s latex-covered arse. However, that is just fanboy nitpicking, because I do have an appreciation for a child-friendly E-Rated Spider-Man game that we can play as a family.

There’s also the fact that this is the first time in a video game that fans can play as all these characters, and they are fully realized. From Doc Ock’s tentacles, to Sandman’s, well, sand, every character in the game is fully playable and upgradeable. So while the fanboy in you may roll your eyes, the kid in you secretly gets a kick out of watching Spider-Man and Otto taking down The Rhino. There are even character combo attacks you can earn throughout each level that give a quick little Power Rangers-esque double team animation, leading to massively damaging attacks on all the Phantoms in the vicinity.

If you want depth, it is in this game. Between levels, player one (as Spidey) can walk around the deck of a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier to switch between sidekicks and upgrade them. Spider-Man has dozens of different web upgrades, and you can also build up the strength and special-attacks of all the sidekicks. While this is nothing compared to Marvel Ultimate Alliance, it is interesting enough that adult gamers will have additional content to balance while the kids are just waiting to play the next round.

There are moments that are such a throw-back for adult fans that I laughed out loud and had to explain to everyone why. Not far into the first level, Spider-Man declares that he could go for a “Fruit Pie”. There was a time when every, single comic book hero in the Marvel and DC Universe’s shilled for those deep-fried, congealed goodies. The ads were designed as a single page comic book page. This may seem odd now, but some of the greatest comic book artists ever worked on these ads, and they have a special place in the hearts of geeks over the age of 30.

Hostess Fruit Pie Ad Courtesy of Branded in the 80′s

On the subject of Peter Parker’s disturbing cravings for 1970′s mass-produced snacks, the voice acting in FoF is supremely well done. There isn’t a ton of dialogue during gameplay, but cutscenes feature all the characters going back and forth with a surprising amount of humor that is suitable for all ages. Although I personally would have added more Hostess references, all the villains have canned responses to Spider-Man’s quips that usually imply some sort of resentment.

Another thing that strikes me as odd is that the game is trying to be some sort of movie universe/fantasy hybrid, but only some of the characters actually sound like their big screen counterparts. The Goblin and Sandman voices are pretty close to Dafoe and Hayden Church, but oddly Dr. Octopus sounds almost EXACTLY like the German-accented version from the animated series of the early 1990′s.

Spidey himself, on the other hand, sounds more light-hearted and truer to the Wall Crawler’s personality than Tobey McGuire did in the third movie. “Here’s millions of dollars, Tobey, can you TRY to have a personality this time?” “No, my back hurts. I’m ready for my close up.”

If you don’t have kids, or are not a huge Spider-Man fan, Friend or Foe may be a waste of time (unless you are an Achievement Junkie–it’s a sweet and easy road to 1000 points!). However, if you have any kids in the house who are constantly begging you to watch Spider-Man, or to buy them a Spider-Man action-figure when you roam Wal-Mart, while they eat Spider-Man Fruit Snacks and poop their Spidey Underoos, then gather the kinfolk and play Spider-Man: Friend or Foe together. Even if it means your family consists of a mutated teenager and a murderous mad scientist.