This isn’t London-based graphic designer and artist Ashley Browning’s first foray into videogame minimalism. But unlike his previous works, which reduced popular characters to a few basic but still easily recognizable shapes, “Street Fighter – Abstract Edition” uses only bands of color to represent the main combatants in Capcom’s classic brawler.
“This is a one-off piece, and a departure from usual Minimalism pieces of mine. This time I just wanted to go really, really basic,” explained Browning on Infinite Continues. “Initially, I felt I was creating a Bauhaus/De Stijl inspired piece, but after finishing it, I thought it also looked like the primitive graphics from Atari 2600 or Intellivision consoles.”
The crazy part is that the characters are no less recognizable for their lack of limbs. Or faces. Or any other remotely humanoid feature. The fact that you can look at a few alternating bands of color and instantly see Ryu, Ken, Blanka, Chun-Li, Zangief and Dhalsim is a testament to the power of color choice in videogame character design. Alternate costumes not withstanding.
-kristen spencer
Okay, maybe THQ didn’t quite slam Modern Warfare, Activision’s billion dollar war machine, but they have tried to distance Homefront, their upcoming entry into the military minded first-person shooter fray, from their competition by claiming it won’t feature “steroided-out, super soldier[s]” running around “pristine,” “movie studio” set pieces.
“The most important thing about Homefront is that it completely differentiates from [Modern Warfare and Medal of Honor],” said THQ’s Danny Bilson in an interview with CVG, stressing Homefront’s focus on “not just fear and adrenalin [but] emotion.”
“There’s no steroided-out, super-soldier, waving the American flag, saying, you know [puts on gruff Yankee voice]: ‘We’re rangers. Toughest guys in the world.’ You know? It’s like: No interest in that.”
“All the tonality of Homefront is very different to what’s out there today. It’s violence with consequence,” he added. “Everything we’ve done in this comes after looking at history, looking at occupied lands and guerrilla warfare throughout time…What we’re telling the story of is civilians fighting for their homes. We’ve created this massive world of 2027. And it’s global. We’re a global company. No jingoism here. Some of that’s political, some of that’s personal.”
Though I respect THQ’s efforts to add a little “civilian misery” to the otherwise staid and sterile genre, I still say blowing shit up is global. A good fiery, debris-filled explosion knows no political, sociological or geographical boundaries.
-kristen spencer
If you have an original copy of PopCap’s Plants vs. Zombies, tuck it away safely with the rest of your Michael Jackson memorabilia because the game’s iconic red leather-wearing, white glove-sporting zombie has been removed following a complaint from the late singer’s estate.
“The Estate of Michael Jackson objected to our use of the ‘dancing zombie’ in PLANTS vs. ZOMBIES based on its view that the zombie too closely resembled Michael Jackson,” a PopCap Games representative informed MTV Multiplayer. “After receiving this objection, PopCap made a business decision to retire the original ‘dancing zombie’ and replace it with a different ‘dancing zombie’ character for future builds of PLANTS vs. ZOMBIES on all platforms. The phase-out and replacement process is underway.”
The Thriller-inspired Dancing Zombie appeared only during night levels, where he would use his slick dance moves to summon a horde of sinisterly synchronized Back-up Dancer Zombies. Though Plants vs. Zombies‘ homage to Jackson’s 14-minute masterpiece didn’t raise any objections while the singer was still alive, released as it was a couple of months before his death, PopCap has decided to preempt a lawsuit. The latest update to the game replaces the controversial character with a disco themed zombie. And up in heaven, Michael sheds a single tear.
-kristen spencer
The galaxy’s most beloved bounty hunter will be playing an integral role in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, according to LucasArts’ Haden Blackman, who penned the story for both the first game and its Boba Fett-enhanced sequel.
“We didn’t want to just throw Boba Fett or other characters in the game just for the sake of making a fan appearance,” said Blackman. “But it really made sense for [Vader] to hire Boba Fett.”
As the game opens, Vader’s wayward apprentice Starkiller, having gotten the rebellion ball rolling, is wisely hyper-spacing the hell away from the cloning facilities on Kamino. Enter Boba Fett, whom Vader enlists to hunt down his former protege.
“[Boba Fett] really has become a rich character over time, and for us to have him show up in a small but pivotal role was exciting. We give him what I think is a satisfying character arc. He starts in one place emotionally and physically, and ends up in a different place,” said Blackman. “Fans just want more stories about him…There are definitely more stories we can tell with this character.”
-kristen spencer
The long-rumored live-action Halo movie isn’t the only sci-fi shooter still hoping to one day grace the big screen, according to Gears of War’s Cliff Bleszinski.
At this year’s Comic-Con International, the chainsaw-loving game designer hinted that the planned Hollywood adaptation of the game, helmed by Live Free or Die Hard director Len Wiseman before he left to pursue another project, might still happen, albeit with a greatly reduced budget and streamlined story. Wiseman’s take on the run, gun and rend with a mechanical saw material was budgeted around $100 million. That’s scraping the bottom of the money barrel for your average summer spectacular, but the hard R-rating and lack of a love story didn’t exactly have the studios falling over each other.
According to Bleszinski, he’s been trying to rework the script and lower the budget, aiming for something “more like District 9.” Sounds good to me, considering that with a measly $30 million in pocket change director Neil Blomkamp managed to create one of the most powerful and political alien movies ever made, and without skimping on the fiery explosions. Just please, leave out the love story! As awful as it was in Gears of War 2, where even the computer controlled character models seemed loathe to deliver the insipid dialogue, just image how painful it will be spilling from the mouths of Jay Hernandez and Mila Kunis.
-kristen spencer
Like a dead-eyed housewife who has walked into a door one time too many to be believably blamed on that pesky inner ear infection, “no-one’s fighting [microtransactions] anymore,” according CCP, developer of upcoming massively multiplayer console shooter Dust 514.
In an interview with GamesIndustry, CCP’s senior director of business development Yohei Ishii claimed both console giants, Microsoft and Sony, have happily embraced Dust 514’s non traditional business model, which emphasises games as continuing service rather than a one time sale.
“Both console manufacturers have been very open to the things that we’re looking for. They all know that games can be even more connected than where they are today. It’s not just about downloading the game and then you’re done,” he said.
“They see that number one they need to get there, number two they need to get MMOs and not just MMOs like Eve or Ultima or World of Warcraft, but other types of genre that could really fit in, that are already established. And microtransactions, everyone is looking at that. They’ve seen such success with downloadable content, it’s only one step further to take it to microtransactions.”
“It’s not like a few years back when it was ‘oh, free to play games, who would buy a dollar item?,’” he added. “No-one’s fighting it anymore.”
-kristen spencer
You never really cared about where the shapes came from in Tetris, just as long as they kept coming, but I always suspected something sinister. Eduardo San Gil via Threadless.
-Kristen Spencer
Though Crackdown 2 didn’t prove to be the blockbuster sequel fans were hoping for, the improved if not particularly innovative return to Pacific City’s superhero sandbox makes for a fun summer distraction. But it seems an average Metacritic score doesn’t sit well with developer Ruffian, who have been compelled to respond to some of the game’s criticisms, including its repetitive missions, flimsy narrative and familiar setting.
“One of the things we are worried about is that there are elements of repetitiveness in the game, but that is through necessity of how the game is structured for being this completely open experience that can be approached from any angle with many players,” defended producer James Cope in an interview with MTV Multiplayer.
“The couple of design challenges we faced with the Crackdown franchise was that it’s built around a completely free-form and open world. Go-anywhere, do-anything in any order. Trying to tell a story in that is very hard. You can’t tell a linear narrative and you can’t direct or expect people to be in certain places at certain times and make anything cohesive in that environment. It’s one of those things that you just have to sweep under the carpet a little bit and focus on the gameplay experience,” he added. “Expanding the storyline too much beyond what was already set wasn’t what people wanted.”
What people wanted is agility orbs, and Crackdown 2 delivers that in spades. Personally, I don’t think Ruffian has anything to defend - they chose to go the safe route, fine tuning an already proven formula for a game that’s uninspired but far from unentertaining. But defending a conscious choice and making excuses for lackluster game design are two different things, and I’m not sure which side of that proverbial fence Ruffian is straddling. Methinks the producer doth protest too much.
-kristen spencer
FrontierVille, developer Zynga’s Wild West spin on their Facebook-based smash hit FarmVille, is currently the fastest growing game on the social networking service. And to thank the more than 15 million active monthly users that have made this success possible, Zynga is giving them shit. Actually, not giving so much as selling, but the shit part - entirely accurate.
Over the holiday weekend, players came face to feces with the Manure Collection, a new set of virtual dumps lovingly pinched off by the game’s menagerie of farm animals, that could be used to unlock an item needed to create fireworks. As if an explosion of virtual bird diarrhea weren’t fireworks enough. The collection includes such alliteration-abundant entries as Poultry Puddin’, Piggy Poop, Brush Brownie, Prairie Pile, and Meadow Muffin. Not included is the sense of dignity you will have lost for trading real money for fake fecal matter.
-kristen spencer
He’s said it before and he’s saying it again, there will be another Zone of the Enders game according to creator Hideo Kojima, just as soon as this whole Metal Gear thing loses some steam. In an interview with JeuxFrance, the reclusive game designer repeated promises to work on Zone of the Enders 3, teasing that development could start after Metal Gear Solid: Rising releases.
“My team and I want to develop a new ZOE,” he said. “But it turns out that Kojima Productions has limited resources in terms of teams and directors. So at this stage, we have not yet had time to work on ZOE 3 which has been postponed at the calendar. However, I think after Rising, I will look seriously [at] ZOE.”
Some food for thought Kojima, the appeal of giant robots might be timeless, but the patience of your average giant robot-loving gamer is not.
-kristen spencer
Sadly, you’ll never really be able to go hand to hoof with an actual Joystickorn, but don’t let that detract from your enjoyment of artist Brian McLachlan’s clever tribute to the cornerstone of videogamedom, the epic boss battle.
Based on his webcomic, The Princess Planet, these tongue-in-cheek giclée prints, available in both 8.5×11” and 11×17” ready to frame sizes, certainly capture the spirit if not the reality of the final stage encounters of yore.
I don’t know about you, but I could totally picture Doctor Robotnik riding a mildly retarded pink unicorn into battle without the slightest trace of irony.
-kristen spencer
When it comes to expanding the Star Wars mythos, the normally second-string mediums of videogames, cartoons and comics have put George Lucas’ recent movies to shame, so it seems only fair that one of them in particular - The Force Unleashed - should itself inspire a movie.
Despite average reviews, The Force Unleashed ’s midichlorian-infused secret apprentice Starkiller exhibited enough bad ass attitude in the first five minutes that he almost made us forget how the prequels turned filmdom’s most iconic villain into the galaxy’s biggest crybaby. Whether a testament to the care the developers put into crafting engaging characters and an interesting storyline, or to how desperate fans are to wash their brains clean of Jar Jar Binks, The Force Unleashed has established itself as a franchise in its own right, spawning its own line of comics, novels and, if its creators have any say, a movie.
“We’re already seeing [The Force Unleashed] reach out into publishing with comic books and novels that are taking into account stories we’ve created and characters we’ve created,” said executive producer Haden Blackman in an interview with CVG. “Hopefully some day we see these characters on big or little screen.”
In the meantime, fans of Darth Vader’s prodigal progeny can look forward to his return in the upcoming sequel, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, despite his apparent self-sacrificial demise in the first game. “We’re dealing in a period of time that has largely been unexplored by anything,” said Blackman. “[Lucasfilm has] been really great about letting us do what we need to do to make the best game possible and tell the best story.”
-kristen spencer
