Think about this for a moment. Preparation for an evening long session of Halo 3 could have included snacks, beverages, console, game disc and a stereoscopic 3D display. According to a July 3 interview with GamesIndustry.biz, XNA's general manager, Chris Satchell, said Microsoft considered the tech for console gaming.
In an excerpt from the interview, Satchell revealed that Microsoft actually looked into using stereoscopic technology (seen in the upcoming Ubisoft game Avatar and Texas Instruments' upcoming DualView TV) for gaming. Ultimately it was determined the need for special glasses made the idea impractical. "I think it is hard to be mainstream with asking people to wear headgear to play games," he said. We'd prefer the headgear above, thank you.
While technology is being developed to overcome some original obstacles for stereoscopic displays, Satchell believes the possibility of the tech is, "very interesting." As Joystiq pointed out, we're officially one step closer to the "Holodeck," people! Awesome?
Coming soon from developer Load Inc. and publisher Southpeak is Things on Wheels, an RC racer for the Xbox Live Arcade that invokes memories of the classic, ReVolt. Hot off the heels of developing and releasing Mad Tracks for the Arcade, Load Inc. has been hard at work on their latest vision of fast-and-fun arcade racing.
In an exclusive interview with business developer Denis Bourdain of Load Inc., we discuss the inspiration and process of creating a new racer for the XBLA, the recent delisting controversy and the problem with retail in international markets.
Jump inside and fasten your seatbelt for the exclusive interview with Load Inc.'s Denis Bourdain.
In an exclusive interview with X3F since Microsoft announced XBLA delisting, Load Inc. business developer Denis Bourdain told us the Mad Tracks dev team heard about the new initiative the same way we all did -- through the press.
"It was news to us, but doesn't make a lot of difference," Bourdain told X3F as the team finishes their new Xbox Live Arcade title, Things on Wheels.
Mad Tracks, an arcade party car title, received mixed reviews when it was released in May '07 netting it just under the 65% Metacritic rating minimum for delisting, putting its availability on the XBLA platform in jeopardy.
"Our conversion rate is much higher than 6%, but Microsoft remains the only one calling the shots." Bourdain said. "Prior to making XBLA games, we were making retail PC titles. You get taken down without notice after 6 months in most stores ... [after almost a year] We feel already privileged to have lasted this long."
The full interview will be online later this afternoon.
If the world was ruled by Telltale Games everyone would respect talking animals and Sam & Max would be on the Xbox Live Arcade, the second part at least is the word from Telltale's Emily Morganti. In an interview with Jim Squires from THEBBPS, Morganti confirmed the developer still wants Sam & Max to visit the Arcade.
"We'd still like to do it. Our tools currently allow us to develop for PC, Xbox 360, and Wii," Morganti said. "We're not ruling out other platforms in the future. We're interested in PlayStation, also... we want our games to be everywhere!"
Sam & Max has been a popular series for Telltale as the episodic adventure series has found success releasing exclusively with GameTap's online service-- a PC version of Sam & Max: Season One was recently released to retail.
With the recent release of Penny Arcade Adventures' first episode on Xbox Live Arcade and the recent increase of file size for downloadable games, we're hoping Sam & Max can find a home on the Xbox 360 in the very near future.
Epic's Cliff Bleszinski recently sat down with GameDaily for a feature called 10 Questions, where an esteemed member of the gaming industry is asked ten fan submitted questions. Cliff was thrown Q's from everything related to breaking into the industry, why he ditched a Dodge Viper and how to make it in today's gaming world.
Of course Gears of War 2 was a hot topic and fans asked how it will stand-up to it's Game of the Year winning predecessor. "With the sequel, we're able to significantly streamline the online experience with a far more robust package that enables players to kick more ass online with their friends," Cliff answered.
Without giving away too much information on the single-player experience, Cliff said the game must throw more interesting scenarios at players in between combat situations to stay fresh, "In Gears 2, we've got dozens of surprises in every level that will keep people talking for months to come."
With changes to Epic's premier gaming engine fans wondered how updates to Unreal Engine 3 will change the Gears experience. While Cliff was tight-lipped, he assured gamers the environments would add to the experience with a wider capacity for damage. "Players will really feel like they're in a sci-fi multiplayer version of Black Hawk Down." Gears of War 2 hits Xbox 360 this Novemeber.
For those of us who have been following the N+ developer debacle, this newest interview will hold some new information to absorb. If you couldn't care less, then all you need to know is that the creators of N+ are at work on a new game tentatively called Robotology. The game is a 2D physics-based platformer with grappling hooks and articulated/simulated robots walking around. The graphics are to be similar to N+ in terms of style, but more complex overall, and with all plans currently open to change. No platform has yet been announced for Robotology.
For those interested in the state of XBLA, the Metanet guys open up a bit more about their point of view. There's also plenty of question's concerning the development of N+ and fans of the game should find some of the questions rather interesting (ever wonder why your game might not always save?)
In an interview with Gamasutra, Silicon Knights lead Dennis Dyack discussed his upcoming game Too Human and the overall direction of the industry. While Dyack has always been passionate about his work, he does admit that the company's success hitches on the response from gamers at retail for Too Human. "It would be really, really bad [if Too Human wasn't a commercial success]," Dyack explained, "in some sense ... Would it kill us? I don't know. We'd probably recover."
"Miyamoto-san said it right a long time ago: "No one will remember a late game; everyone will remember a bad game," Dyack reminisces while discussing the reasons behind the nine-year wait since Too Human was first shown at E3 1999. "We believe in that strongly. We live and die by our last game. And, you know, you're only as good as your last game." With that in mind we, along with Dyack, wonder why Silicon Knights gets so much flak for their upcoming trilogy when their back catalog has been nothing but critical "darlings." Awards for Legacy of Kain and Eternal Darkness fill the glass cases of Silicon Knights' St. Catherines, Ontario, office. With such a history, Dyack wonders why people continue to doubt the company's latest piece.
"We have no skeletons in our closet. I wish everyone knew all about the stuff that we've done in the past, but you look at Legacy of Kain, you look at Eternal Darkness, you look at Metal Gear," Dyack proclaims. "Too Human is going to be another one. We wouldn't let it out until then. It's real tough, though. It's real tough. It's not an easy process."
For more on Too Human and Dyack's thoughts on the direction of the industry, read the entire interview.
MTV'S Multiplayer blog recently had the opportunity to ask Owen O'Brien, Senior Producer on Mirror's Edge, a few questions regarding the game development and ideas. The interview offers a good view on the philosophy of the game's development and includes some interesting items, such as the origin of the name, the all-to-real possibility of "simulation sickness" as well as the art direction, including the apparent absence of the color green from all released images. Now, in the interview O'Brien's response to that last bit is particularly telling, as he doesn't confirm that the game has no green ....
And as the released concept art seems to suggest, the color green is limited only to certain areas, confirming the very specific art direction mentioned in the interview. There are fivenewlypostedpieces of concept art, and threenewscreenshots. Look upon them and marvel (but don't forget to read the interview.)
Having recently hit the tubes to critical and consumer praise, it seems that the side-scrolling ninja platformer N+ isn't even all the game that it was originally intended to be. In an article over at MTV's Multiplayer blog, N+'s developers go in depth on the game's history concerning the plans for inclusion of an open download/upload space for level sharing (similar to Halo 3's system, which makes one wonder why that was a-okay). In fact, that very feature was implemented in the version of the game that was released onto PartnerNet for testing. However, in the game's last final months of development Microsoft shut the feature down, demanding that it be stripped back to the condition it's in today (with the ability to share user-generated content only available from the folks on your friends list.) With games being handicapped or delayed due to Microsoft's draconian ideas about sharing things, what is the future for the content of XBLM?
We've already posted the audio of our interview with Peter Molyneux, but we know not everyone is down with spoken word. As such, we've transcribed the entire interview for your reading pleasure. In this massive interview, Molyneux discusses Fable 2 co-op (he thinks Live co-op is a great idea by the way), the possibility of versus multiplayer (which is also a good idea according to Molyneux), and we even manage to squeeze in questions about Microsoft's new XNA initiative and the ill-fated BC. Find the lengthy and informative interview after the break.
The annual Game Developer's Conference played host to something of a Cinderella story this year, plunging a once unknown game developer into the limelight. We're talking, of course, about James Silva, creator of Dishwasher: Dead Samurai and Microsoft's new poster child for XNA Community Games. We managed to catch up with James during the conference and ask him how things have changed since the last time we spoke. We also discussed just how James feels about Peter Molyneux and whether or not he's still considering the "Pulling a Peter Moore" achievement for Dishwasher's guitar segments (see 360 Fancast 044 at around 1:05:00). Find the interview after the break. The audio version of the interview is also available in our latest Fancast.
Don't ask us how we did it, but we managed to corner Peter Molyneux at GDC this year. We subsequently tied him to a chair and forced him to answer our questions about Fable 2. No, no, of course we didn't do that. Peter Molyneux is, in fact, an entirely amiable man -- perhaps too amiable -- and was happy to answer our questions. We learn a few details about Fable 2's newly announced co-op features, the Xbox Live Arcade tie-in, and we even wedge in a question about the ill-fated BC. We've posted the audio from the interview below. The audio will also be delivered to subscribers of the Xbox 360 Fancast. Feel free to download the MP3 using the "Read" link as well. Finally, if you can't be bothered to listen to things -- we know how important you are -- stay tuned for the transcription coming later this week.
In a relatively short interview with a relatively mainstream news outlet, the head of Team Ninja, Tomonobu Itagaki, gave the UK a bit of an insight into his mind and views. The interview is interspersed through a news post in which the writer discusses Ninja Gaiden 2 in the context of the UK game market (where Manhunt 2 was banned) and the world as a whole. Itagaki is his usual self, providing varying levels of interesting and puzzling. Though maybe it's in the translation, it's hard to mistranslate a guy getting up and pulling out his samurai sword right in front of you. This was in response to the interviewers questioning him on the violence in his game, about which he offered his opinions, namely that violence is not about just dismemberment.
Violence in his mind has more to do with the Japanese traditon of putting your enemy to shame. Removing his ability to fight, then watching as he commits suicide out of disgrace. "That's what I consider to be real violence," says Itagaki, according to him,"It's not about lopping off limbs. It is about the relationship between you and your opponent. In order to inflict these dishonouring wounds you would really have to hate your opponent and this is not what this game or this character is about." Itagaki has more than just to say in the interview so get outta here and go read it!
In the aftermath of GDC and the releasing of more Force Unleashed information, the game's Producer, Cameron Suey, sat down (so to speak) with the guys from Gamersyde and gave them a bit of an insight into the development of the newest entry in the Star Wars saga. The interview contains no bombshells, but has plenty of interesting little tidbits, such as the reveal of some limited RPG elements, discussions of the game's enemies and their abilities, as well as talk of the new tech, the DMM, and Euphoria. Check the video out if you're at all interested in the game, as Cameron does have some interesting anecdotes about the gamplay. Set to be released this summer, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is really starting to shape up well, and we just can't wait.
And as with the previous gameplay videos, sorry in advance to readers who are having issues with slow loads. We still love ya'll.
We had Mass Effect,Blue Dragon, and more last year, but other than Fable 2 what are our RPG releases for the rest of this year? Well, Fallout 3 should end up being the Oblivion of 2008 (especially considering they're from the same developer). The continuation of the post-apocalyptic dark-humor-filled isometric PC RPG of yesteryear has been in development for a while now, and is still slated for a Fall release. Bethesda's VP of Marketing, Pete Hines, sat down for a ridiculously long interview with the guys from gameplayer.com.au, and the interview is well worth reading even for folks who don't consider themselves either Fallout or Oblivion fans. And if you're either (or both!) of those then this is absolutely required reading.
Keep reading the post though, and you'll hear about the vaults ....
In an exclusive interview with X3F since Microsoft announced 
